Don't let Veteran's/Armistice Day go without making a conscious, active effort to remember the fallen.
Here are five suggestions:
1. Wear a red poppy.
2. Pause for a minute, whatever you are doing, at the 11th hour and think of all of those in uniform, who are defending us and our freedom around the world .
3. Recite John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" with your family and friends.
4. View a classic World War I movie like All Quiet..., Sgt. York, or Dawn Patrol.
5. Visit you local veteran's cemetery and lay a wreath or a single flower on a random grave.
Share your ideas on our Comments feature.
1. Wear a red poppy.
2. Pause for a minute, whatever you are doing, at the 11th hour and think of all of those in uniform, who are defending us and our freedom around the world .
3. Recite John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" with your family and friends.
4. View a classic World War I movie like All Quiet..., Sgt. York, or Dawn Patrol.
5. Visit you local veteran's cemetery and lay a wreath or a single flower on a random grave.
Share your ideas on our Comments feature.
Wear a red poppy if you're British and call tomorrow Remembrance Day. If you're American, save the red poppy for what used to be called Decoration Day, May 30, when Americans, north and south, paused to decorate the graves of the hundreds of thousands of Americans killed in the war between the north and the south. And, yeah, I know about that Flanders Field poem. The British have their traditions, but let's not forget ours.
ReplyDeleteI am American and I will go ahead and wear a red poppy despite your advising otherwise. And I will mourn the loss of Union lives, but not those of the traitors.
ReplyDeleteWhy, whoever do you mean when you refer to the traitors? My ancestors fought and died for the Confederacy, to which they are eternal patriots. We view the Union sympathizers as the traitors.
DeleteIt would seem you are on the wrong side of history ;-)
DeleteI was thinking of displaying the American flag outside our house on Nov. 11. Is that not a good option for Veterans' Day?
ReplyDeleteI think we all commemorate in our own fashion. The poppy is not only British but very Canadian and it is a symbol of WW1. Whether it is flying the American Flag or wearing a Poppy it is more than most will do. Visiting a Cemetery and laying a wreath is a wonderful thing. Once you walk the battlefields and see the graves for both sides of any conflict you realize they were all victims.
ReplyDeleteCSA vets were declared by law to be U.S. vets decades ago. Didn't some President quite a while ago talk about "with malice toward none, with charity for all"? And it's always nice to learn that Canada wasn't part of the British Empire and Canadians (and Newfoundlanders, Australians, New Zealanders, etc.) weren't British subjects when Remembrance Day began.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't mean their actions weren't treasonous.
DeleteI will observe Veteran's Day tomorrow at my granddaughter's middle school. Each year they ask each student to invite all of the veterans in their family to be recognized at this ceremony. Many of us will then stay to answer questions about our military service. It is a meaningful and appropriate experience. I am also moved by the number of kids in this school who have siblings that are veterans.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget wearing the red poppy actually started in the USA. We are often known as stealing other countries traditions, but this is one time that ours were taken.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we subsequently forgot about it.
We will go to the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris this year as we have for several years for the service at 3:00 p.m. You can buy poppies in front. The English ambassador is usually there for a few words, we sing English hymns and there are representatives from numerous units, French and English. The French and the English do pageantry better than we do IMHO. The American Legion is thee but not much else U.S. Highlanders will pipe folks in and out.
ReplyDelete