Today is November 11th – Veteran’s Day in the USA and Remembrance Day in Canada. It’s the day that we all take a few moments on the 11th hour to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of the freedom we enjoy every day. it’s that freedom that allows us to live our lives in wonderful and glorious democracy, and that freedom that allows sites such as Hamsexy to exist (and the right to be able to visit it).
We count members of the armed forces as members and friends of the Hamsexy family, both past and present. Take a moment today to speak to either an active member of the military or a veteran of a foreign war, and you’ll greater appreciate the price that we pay every day for freedom. Take special effort to speak to those who served in the Second World War – their insight, wisdom and experiences will give you an understanding of the evolution of our freedom, and open up a past that so 
many of us today know very little about, and appreciate even less.
To those who have served and died in previous wars, and those who are serving today in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Haiti, we here at Hamsexy honor you and the sacrifice you and your families make ensuring the banner of freedom continues to fly. God bless and protect all of you.
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.
Lt. Col. John A. McCrae, M.D.
Queen’s Own Rifles Militia Regiment of Canada
Ypres, Belgium – 1915
I spent 4 years as an Air Cadet and then moved on to joining the Canadian Armed Forces reserves,where I served for 5 years.
During that time I participated in every November 11th parade and as a Cadet often helped sell poppies to raise money to help vets.
I’m proud of my time in the reserves but I’m also sad that I wasn’t able to do more. I was on the short list for peace keeping, either Golan Heights or Cyprus but I was away on a leave of absence in Mexico (where I was visiting my ex-wifes family for 6 months.) I wish I had been able to go overseas and help people less fortunate then ourselves to live in peace and security.
The men and woman of our military today spend a lot of time training and are often called upon to perform their duties in difficult and dangerous conditions. Do we Canadians realize that we still have people actively on duty in places like Afganistan? Do we realize that we have soldiers in places all over the world helping others, right now, today?
Let’s all take a moment to be thankful for the men and woman in our society who are willing to do what needs to be done and take risks in doing so.
And one last thing about Iraq. If you disagree with the war in Irag, (Like me for example), that’s fine. Be thankful for the men and woman who have gone to Iraq for being brave and for doing their duty, even if you disagree with the government for sending them there.
Be thankful for your RIGHT to disagree and to express that disagreement.
Most Canadians, if not the rest of North America, aren’t even aware that we have an active military.
Thanks for serving, when guys like me don’t have the wherewithal to do so.
I send out blessings to all the men and women in the military.
I even bless the opposite side as far as the military goes, because the enemy “rank and file” is no different than our own military, getting paid low money to get killed by our superior forces for a cause they probably dont believe in, but unlike the Canadian and U.S. military, they will be killed immediately if they so much as question authority.
I absolutely applaud and respect those who have served, suffered, and lost their lives in the name of freedom and, ultimately, peace.
But I can’t let “Flanders fields” be posted without a comment. This work of propaganda claims to speak on behalf of the dead, and has them telling their countrymen to “take up our quarrel with the foe”.
In truth, most of the young men who died (on all sides) in WWI had little idea of why they were fighting. They lived in squalid conditions, surrounded on all sides by disease, fear, and enormous suffering before finally dying, usually in horrific circumstances and enormous pain.
So what was their sacrifice in aid of? They couldn’t have told you. Certainly most of them didn’t want to be there. Historically, the main lasting impact of WWI was to force Germany into a position of national humiliation and economic suffering – conditions which Adolf Hitler and the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei found ideal for breeding and formenting their particular vision.
Anyway, this has turned into a rant. My point is that WWI wasn’t in any way glorious; and that the poor souls who suffered so enormously weren’t in fact making a worthy sacrifice; bluntly their lives were wasted. Most of those who died were younger than most readers of this site.
So remember them; yes. Remember the suffering and the pain; but don’t be taken in by John McCrae’s honey-sweet words about bravery, and passing on torches, and not breaking faith. If you want a poem to reflect on at this time of year, try this one:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
(DULCE ET DECORUM EST – the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean “It is sweet and right.” The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country)
To your rant, I shall just say one word:
CONTEXT
Perhaps you could say a few more words so I understand what you mean?
Look at the context that the poem was written in. It wasn’t written today, when liberal guilt and the benefit of hindsight and impartial thought can paint a different picture.
It was written on the battlefields by a soldier who’s job it was to repair the wounds of those who were fighting if only for an ideal.
Look back at the times and the mood of those raring to defend the motherland from the ‘evil’ huns. Canada wasn’t a country back then, it was still part of the British Empire.
Your rant was short-sighted and doesn’t take into account the moods and feelings behind the mindset the fuelled the war.
I make no apologizes for posting it. Rememberance day is a day to honor the vets and the wars they fought, not to trivialize their struggle into politics and rhetoric.
There’s no reason you should apologise for posting it; I didn’t intend to criticise you for doing so. However you’re wrong to call my rant “short-sighted”; I am talking about events nearly a century ago.
Furthermore you can’t say I didn’t take into account feelings at the time; “Dulce et Decorum Est” was published in 1918 – the same year as “In Flanders Fields”.