11 11 1918

[Guest guest]

As today is Armistice Day in the entire western world. WWI ended at the 11th

hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. In 1954, President

Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans' Day and ask all Americans to use

this day to remember those who died in defense of America, and also as a day

to pledge ourselves to the path of peace.

I invite you all at 11 a.m. today to make 1 minute of silence and remember

all those who have died defending the United States, and to say a wee prayer

for those in war's path today.

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.

Canadian poet McCrae was a medical officer in both the Boer War and

World War I. A year into the latter war he published in Punch magazine, on

December 8, 1915, the sole work by which he would be remembered. This poem

created a great sensation and legend has it that he was inspired by seeing

the blood-red poppies blooming in the fields where many friends had died. In

1918 McCrae died at the age of 46, in the way most men died during that war,

not from a bullet or bomb, but from disease: pneumonia, in his case.