This is an excerpt from my blog posting and a column published in the Sky Hi News in May 2015, My prayer is relevant today as we face a potential devastating nuclear war in Korea. The text of the poem that inspired the day of remembrance, In Flander's Fields: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm
Veterans Day names and celebrations differ from country to country. Originally called Armistice Day, it is to celebrate on the day the combatants signed the end World War I. Most countries (except France and Belgium) the holiday name. The United Kingdom and Canada in 1931 adopted the name Remembrance Day, while the United States chose All Veterans Day (later shortened to 'Veterans Day') in 1938 and later extended it to honor military veterans of all conflicts. When I was a child in Oklahoma in the 1950s we still referred to it as Armistice Day. I remember wearing a crepe paper poppy on that day to remind us of the end of World War I and those that died in it.
Veterans Day names and celebrations differ from country to country. Originally called Armistice Day, it is to celebrate on the day the combatants signed the end World War I. Most countries (except France and Belgium) the holiday name. The United Kingdom and Canada in 1931 adopted the name Remembrance Day, while the United States chose All Veterans Day (later shortened to 'Veterans Day') in 1938 and later extended it to honor military veterans of all conflicts. When I was a child in Oklahoma in the 1950s we still referred to it as Armistice Day. I remember wearing a crepe paper poppy on that day to remind us of the end of World War I and those that died in it.
I have often found myself on British Commonwealth territory in November. Artificial poppies, red with a distinctive black middle, are worn in remembrance of the fallen in the poppy covered Flanders Fields in Belgium inspired by a poem by John McCrae. Poppies are sold as fund raisers to provide charity to veterans of all wars. I always bought a poppy to remind me that our close allies in the British Commonwealth suffered even more than us in World War I.
In remembering my relatives and ancestors who fought on our behalf, I do have a special prayer. It contains thanks for their service but I also pray that the leaders who will send them to battle in the future have the wisdom to avoid putting them in harms way in vain and first seek other options to settle conflicts. War should only be a defensive action against an attack on us and our allies. To launch wars as a preemptive strike should never be in our country’s traditions.
A version of this appeared in the Sky Hi Daily News Friday May 22, 2015
A fellow Rotarian asked if I had ever heard this version of Waltzing Matilda which became a war protest song in the 70's. I thought I had heard most of the folk songs of that era, but this one I had not, or if I did, I forgot it. On Poppy Day, as I called veteran's day, and also celebrated it in UK territories, I thought this was a reminder of the horrors of war, not only horrible to those who died, but the horrors of the wounded warriors who returned home. Thank goodness we no longer practice trench warfare, and modern medicine saves so many who otherwise would have been corpses, the return of them home is equally devastating, new protheses technology not withstanding, and especially those with PTSD.
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm
A version of this appeared in the Sky Hi Daily News Friday May 22, 2015
A fellow Rotarian asked if I had ever heard this version of Waltzing Matilda which became a war protest song in the 70's. I thought I had heard most of the folk songs of that era, but this one I had not, or if I did, I forgot it. On Poppy Day, as I called veteran's day, and also celebrated it in UK territories, I thought this was a reminder of the horrors of war, not only horrible to those who died, but the horrors of the wounded warriors who returned home. Thank goodness we no longer practice trench warfare, and modern medicine saves so many who otherwise would have been corpses, the return of them home is equally devastating, new protheses technology not withstanding, and especially those with PTSD.
http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm
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