Remembrance/Armistice Day (11 November)

[waldershelf]

I'm with dozy and alistair on this one there is nothing glorious about dying in agony in a field in some foriegn land for the whims and machnations of politicians. Having said that I have a poppy on my jacket and will have my own "rememberance" on Sunday for me it will be a sad occasion with no glory in it. I think Eric Bogle's no mans land sums it up for me. June Tabors version is my favourite

 

Well how do you do, Private William McBride

Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?

And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,

I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done.

I see by your gravestone you were only 19

When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916.

Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean

Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

 

Chorus:

Did they beat the drum slowly?

Did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?

Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

 

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?

In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined

And though you died back in 1916

To that loyal heart are you always 19?

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Forever enshrined behind some glass-pane

In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained

And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

 

Chorus

 

Well the sun's shining now on these green fields of France,

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.

The trenches are vanished long under the plough

No gas, and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.

But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand.

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

 

Chorus

 

And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride

Do all those who lie here know why they died?

Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?

You really believed that this war would end war?

But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame -

The killing and dying - it was all done in vain.

For Willie McBride, it's all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again.

 

Chorus

[xruthx]

i for one will wear a poppy with pride, these men lost their lives so you had the freedom to post on here, ALL war is evil but the money raised by wearing a poppy goes directly to the families of servicemen kiled, to not wear a poppy is disrespectful to the ones killed in any war.

 

 

my grandfather nearly lost his life fighting for the freedom of britian ans i will remember him and the tens of thousands of other people lost to this barbaric game the goverments play

 

 

 

 

 

to my grandfather...........never forgotton always proud x x x x

 

lest we forget.

[nosy nellie]

Well said xruthx.We should always remember,and always wear the POPPY with pride.

[Agent Orange]

Thanks for the comments. I wasnt looking to start a debate surrounding certain words within this thread as I think it devalues the aim of this somewhat. This thread is merely here to remember and encourage others to do so. I would be grateful if any further debate about what has been discussed be posted on an alternative thread.

 

Thank you!!!

[LitleMermaid]

Thanks for the comments. I wasnt looking to start a debate surrounding certain words within this thread as I think it devalues the aim of this somewhat. This thread is merely here to remember and encourage others to do so. I would be grateful if any further debate about what has been discussed be posted on an alternative thread.

 

Thank you!!!

 

I don't think it's devaluing the aim of the thread in any way. Everyone is remembering, they are merely remembering more realistically then some. I'm sorry AO, you know my feelings on this war, and the last thing I want to do is seem disrepectful, but I do have to agree that "glorious" is a very bad choice of word. You of all people should know there is nothing glorious about any aspect of the so called "Great War". I know it was a commonly used word at the time, but surely we know better now? Please don't take this the wrong way, it really isn't an attack on you personally, here is not the place for previous feuds; just take on board other poster's points, they are all valid.

 

The only way we and future generations can hope to remember is to talk about it.

[heavenlyarts]

Avatar changed in remembrance

[KTHFB]

Mine too ....

[LibertyBell]

There is nothing glorious about being killed in war, and no pride for me in wearing a poppy. I wear one but feel only grief for the hundreds of millions who have died in the name of war.

 

From the innocent young men slaughtered pointlessly in the first world War , to the innocent Afghan civilians cut down just this week by US bombs.

 

My poppy is for them all.

[Agent Orange]

I don't think it's devaluing the aim of the thread in any way. Everyone is remembering, they are merely remembering more realistically then some. I'm sorry AO, you know my feelings on this war, and the last thing I want to do is seem disrepectful, but I do have to agree that "glorious" is a very bad choice of word. You of all people should know there is nothing glorious about any aspect of the so called "Great War". I know it was a commonly used word at the time, but surely we know better now? Please don't take this the wrong way, it really isn't an attack on you personally, here is not the place for previous feuds; just take on board other poster's points, they are all valid.

 

The only way we and future generations can hope to remember is to talk about it.

 

 

As I have said previously, I created this thread as a way of remembering the fallen and I merely quoted a few lines about the 'glorious dead' and the 'great war', not my words, but that of others. I didnt expect to be criticised for the use of such words and merely asked for such criticism or debate to be posted elsewhere so this thread can concentrate promoting the poppy appeal.

 

There is room for debate, of course, but I would prefer it wasn't made here given that this is a remembrance thread and nothing more. I appreciate what you have said, but opening debate on a thread to remember the dead is like someone debating the spoken word of someone's eulogy at a funeral service. There is a time and place and this is not it.

 

I'm sorry, but I feel very passionate about this as I have been touched by the horrors of war in recent months. I know what it is like to lose people in the conflict of war, I know of two comrades who served closely with my squadron who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I know there is nothing great about it.

 

AO.

[CarolW]

I wear my poppy with pride.

 

For my grandfather - who fought in both World Wars, and survived.

 

For my grandfather's brother - who fought in WW1 and survived.

 

For two of their cousins who died in France in 1916 and 1917.

 

And also for their sister. Who was engaged to one of the above cousins and afterwards never married and never had children.

 

For all those lost lives.

 

God bless them all.

 

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