Today is Rememberance Day
Sometimes, here in Canada, we call it Poppy Day. The Legion sells poppies that we pin on our coats, to show we haven’t forgotten. The money goes to the Poppy Fund: (from the website):
Poppy Funds are used to provide emergency assistance which is defined as shelter, food, fuel, clothing, prescription medicine and necessary transportation for ex-service personnel and their widows/widowers. We also provide comforts for those who are hospitalized and in need. We provide bursaries to students who are children or grandchildren of Canadian ex-service persons who are in need of this assistance. We provide community medical appliances and medical research.
The poem that started it all:
In Flanders Fields
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.- John McCrae
If aren’t Canadian, and don’t know about the Highway of Heroes, you can read an American’s perspective on it here:
http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/10/1667099.aspx
Listen to the song, and see the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RfXBB0BRHY
Slide show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckfXr1EHO9U&feature=related
Now go remember those that are gone. And think of those still out there.
And I’ll think of Frenchie, my Pop’s friend, who got drunk and cried on the same day every year because “if only we’d marched faster, that kid might have made it”. And my Grandpa’s friend Jerry, the one we helped walk to the house when he visited; his lungs never did recover from the gas in WW1, and the time in the prison camp in Hong Kong in WW2 didn’t help much.
And I’ll be sending good thoughts, and good Karma, and anything else in the way of luck I can, to my friends over there now.
If you know anyone who doesn’t like to take two minutes to remember, get them to listen and watch here:
November 16th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Wow. I did not know about the Highway of Heroes (I’m a US Citizen), and I’m awed at the respect given the fallen soldiers. We could learn from that in the US. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Sadly, Veterans Day here seems to be more about sales than honoring those who served our country and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Again, we could learn from our northern neighbors. Thank you again.