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The Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month …

10 Comments

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Please join me in two minutes of silence at 11:00 this morning.

LawDog

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10 thoughts on “The Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month …”

  1. An occasion much-observed with reverence in these parts.

    We call it Remembrance Day, but no matter the name, it's the same thought.

    What's encouraging is that younger people are turning out for the ceremonies.

  2. Done. I was so fortunate. Two much older brothers (I was adopted when the folks were in their late 40's) came home from Vietnam.

    So many didn't.

    Another served in Operation Ivy Bells. Came home safe, only to be scheduled to be at work in the Pentagon when it was hit.

    I was called to work that day carrying with me, into the burning devastation, a heart heavy, for I thought he was in there, and fresh from the academy, I didn't dare say anything, asking special treatment.

    He was home sick, in another state. But it was hours before I knew that, as I worked with a smoldering heart.

    The burden is heavy, for those that serve and those the gather up the bones of the courageous. My hat is off, for those who serve as LEO's, soldiers and first responders. You are the true measure of what is good about this country.

  4. "Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep,     though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields."

    I thought I'd heard the poem recited at various ceremonials, yet somehow remained unaware of this part– the dead calling the living "To Arms!"

    –But for at least twenty years, it seems to me, Memorial and Veteran's Days have been taken over and turned into "Imagine Whirled Peas" events where the fact of battle death is held up as reason to appease or surrender.

    Or maybe I'm just grumpy in my forties. Meh, whatever.

  6. Hey LD, thanks for the time out of your day to remember veterans and their families.

  7. At 1100 hours on the subject day, I was smack in the middle of 60 minutes of 9mm anti-silence. My brothers and I enlisted in four branches of the US Armed Forces (couldn't get my sister to go Coast Guard, else we'd have hit the cycle). Long since separated, I mark the day by maintaining my readiness should duty come calling.

  9. Mr. Law Dog,
    Would you explain our glorious leaders crotch salute at the tomb of the unknown this past veterans day?

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