Today, November 11, is Remembrance Day. I spend the day in quiet contemplation and re-reading Vera Brittain.
I don't really have anything new to say about this day. My feelings have not changed since my 11/11/10 post, when I wrote the following.
…and I double-dog dare you to rewatch Breaker Morant. (Not about WWI, but you'll get the point.)
"It's a new kind of war George. It's a new war for a new century."
I’m 47 ,and have been asked to read out the roll of the war fallen in a local church. I was very honoured. And I was at school with those names; friends with no grandfathers, their families missing uncles and brothers, lovers and friends. That’s part of why we remember for those left behind, and for the sacrifice the fallen made.
Leslie, I’m glad you could participate in the reading of the roll. We see numbers (in any war) and don’t always connect them to places and actual communities.
I posted a brass rubbing of a memorial for the Bataan Death March in Brainerd MN, dedicated to the men from their National Guard group who served.
http://typepad.rozwoundup.com/roz_wound_up/2008/11/the-polls-are-open.html
When you read the names on the list three things hit you right in the gut—how many families lost more than one son, how many brothers lost brothers, and how a small community must have been devastated by the losses.
Huge sacrifices.