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 lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
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.
This was written by John McCrea, a Canadian Physician who died during WW1.
He was a field surgeon during the war.
He died of pneumonia on January 18 1918.
Many a father and son have died fighting for freedom.
Their blood stains the earth.
Many a mother and a wife fell to the floor at the news of the loss of a son or a husband, staining the floor with her tears.
The acrid smoke rose to the heavens and Mother Nature tried to wash the evidence away, so she wouldn’t have to see the scars or remember the pain.
But the pain and the memory of it will never wash away.
We won’t let it be forgotten and should NEVER forget what war costs.
Today is the day WW1 ended 87 years ago.
The war to end all wars
Then Came WW11
Then the Korean War
Throw in a bunch of small “police actions”
Afghanistan
The Gulf Wars
It’s never going to happen, EVER.
There will always be war.
We will never see the end of war because we are idealists, selfish and arrogant.
We try to impose our beliefs on others, because we say they're right.
In order for the world to see total peace we need to accept people for what they believe in, who they are and we can’t do that.
I am in this group too.
There are something’s in some cultures that I deplore.
As there are some governments that I don’t agree with at all.
It’s a slow progression that picks up speed.
I try to impose my beliefs on someone else as being right as they are doing the same to me.
Then we get pissed off at each other and try and beat each others ideals into the other one.
After a long period of time and blood, we have a winner but nothing changes.
It’s the same as it was before the war, as it is today but with millions of dead in the middle.
Have you ever stopped and thought about what would have happened if the Germans had won the war?
Would it be that much different today?
It’s our Ideals, knowledge and ambition that form the world’s climate, our hypocrisy is the storm that comes and causes trouble.
We say it's ok to be who you are and then we tell you we disagree with you when we feel different.
We make alliances not friends and we fight what is different.
Why can't we all just be friends?
So, until we learn to accept peoples for who they are and want to be, we will gather at our war monuments year after year to remember the young brave people that sacrificed the most precious thing bestowed upon them, their lives.
When I worked as a cleaner in some of the government buildings, I had the pleasure of listening to the commissionaires talk about the war.
Not the violence of it but the friends they made and the places they saw.
Most of these men had never been out of the towns they were born in and didn’t even know the places where they had fought ever existed.
I watched them closely as they replayed the events in their heads as they told me the stories.
They laughed at some of the pranks their buddies had pulled.
I saw one cry as he told me how his friend was killed next to him.
I heard how the people from the liberated countries ran to them. Hugged and kissed them showing how happy they were to be freed.
But back in the road lay their comrades, buddies, people they never knew until they were sent to war.
Men who were willing to die for each other, without a second thought.
Many did.
Today is the day to remember all these soldiers who went to fight for freedom and the one’s who died in all wars.
Today we remember the selfless actions of so few, to benefit so many.
120 million soldiers died in the 20th century due to war.
May they rest in peace knowing we will never forget their sacrifice.
Walker
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