Least we forget

[Kothoses the Tyrant]

Ok I originally posted this at Iron works while we were working on getting this place up.....

The 11th day of a month seems to have been a monumental one on more than one occasion.
While the day of the WTC attacks will be remembered for all the wrong reasons as they day the world was brought into a new kind of war, the day the free world fought for its ideals.

the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (atleast here in the UK) was when the guns fell silent.

This day has many names, memorial day, armastice day, rememberance day, poppy day, but only one meaning, it was the only good part of any war..... the end.

Now with the approach of this day where we pay thanks to those who went before us, a lot of whome made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom, I have to ask, how much more poignant or how different will this years event be.

It strikes me that in this time when half the world is ready to go to war again that maybe this years rememberance day should be used to not only remember and honour those who gave their all to defend us before, but also to pay thanks to those who are prepared to do so now, and to those who were not given a choice when the attacks on the WTC happened.

Just make sure that in these times of trouble now, we also remember those who went before and when called on did the same as those of today are doing now, they defended our right to freedom and liberty.

On november the 11th we remember them.

Lets hope on november the 11th we remember them.

So what will this day mean to you this year?

[ElricMorlockin]

Koth!

 Excellent points. Its easy to forget when your own neck isnt on the line it seems, I hope that perhaps a new appreciation for those young people will come out of all of this.

[Maigan]

A famous remembrance poem is 'For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon (1869-1943). Binyon was assistant keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum and the author of several volumes of verse. For the fallen was first published in the Times (London) in 1914 and later in many anthologies of war verse. It passed into common usage across the Commonwealth. You'll recognise parts of it.

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)