as this day approaches, i am for some reason feeling more indebted and interested in this holiday than ever before. usually i brush it off as just another day off from work, but this year i feel different. war is a terrible thing, but i think as i've read more into sacrifices soldiers are making around the world, i can't help but feel grateful some people are brave enough to take on the duty.

its amazing how brave our soldiers are and how much they risk. good thread

It's great to be able to argue all the politics involved in war, but at the end of the day there's a lot of great young men and women making sacrifices most of us would hesitate to even consider (myself included).

We had our memorial day on the 4th of May, one day before liberation day on the 5th. And the 14th it was remembered that Rotterdam was bombed 68 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam_Blitz

groetjes,
Mirella

Video Op-Ed: A Soldier Remembers

A veteran of the Iraq war finds new meaning in Memorial Day.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=9 ... 591ac5b1bf

Is there any particular flower that is appropriate for memorial day?

i believe it's the poppy flower.



http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp

Well, that's funny.

I despise the modern military machine and everything it represents. Nevertheless, having served among some incredible human beings and been witness to the greatest sacrifice, I can't help but feel a deep reverence and pride for the men and women in our military, past and present.

*SALUTE*

What a great thread!

I'm certainly not thrilled about whats going on in the world and they way our administration has conducted the current war, but that being said every man and woman who wears or has has worn the uniform of my country both deserves and commands my respect.

These people are out their putting their life on the line and both them and their families are making sacrifices that are purely beyond my comprehension. To Buffalohed and everyone else who has served, thanks so much for your service. It's people like that, who care and sacrifice so much that give me hope.

Those red poppies were the first to spring up again after the many battles on Belgian Battlefields, over all the centuries. They are blood red and fragile. But they are also tenacious. Many poets have made the connection between those poppies and the souls of young soldiers who died in "the flower of their youth." The writer of In Flanders Fields was a Canadian medic who was wounded in action and died of his wounds.

In Flanders fields

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.

John McCrae (1872–1918)

This stanza from the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon is often recited at Memorial Day commemorations.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left to 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 flutter behind you, your possible pasts,
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
A warning to anyone still in command
Of their possible future, to take care.
In derelict sidings the poppies entwine
With cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time.

Poppies remain symbol of sacrifice
Sales are a tradition on Memorial Day weekend

Saturday, May 24, 2008
By Joe Maher (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

GLOVERSVILLE — Poppy Days are here again.

The Ladies Auxiliary of American Legion Post 137 resumed the semi-annual tradition of collecting donations in return for red paper poppies this weekend.

It’s a salute to veterans, both living and deceased, according to the national American Legion Auxiliary.

It all started in 1918, when soldiers who served in France in World War I returned home and told of the hardy flowers popping up amid the trenches, craters and otherwise barren battlefield landscape. After reading a poem by Lt. Col. John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields,” a New York City woman, Moina Michael, was so moved she bought a bouquet of poppies and handed them out to businessmen attending a meeting at the YMCA, according to the auxiliary.

Michael asked them to wear the poppies as a tribute to fallen soldiers, and the tradition was born. Later, she led a movement that resulted in the adoption of the poppy as the national symbol of sacrifice.

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/m ... 4_poppies/

Nice thread CB.