Harvey's Hotline #2: On War and Peace and on Remembrance

Harvey's Hotline #2 (2011-2012)
Friday, November 11, 2011
Veterans Day - Remembrance Day 

On War and on Peace and on Remembrance

Dear Piersonites,

I would certainly be remiss if I did not remind you all that today is “Veterans Day,” or what I as a Canadian still proudly call “Remembrance Day.” In Canada, as in the U.K., today is the day when everyone wears a poppy to remember the horrific carnage and enormous sacrifice made “in Flanders Fields” during the “Great War,” that is, World War I, the “war to end all wars.”

May we never forget all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in all wars in all places.

And may lasting peace and justice come to all members of our human family someday.

Finally, here is the poem, so famous in Canada, composed by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918), MD, Canadian Army

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.

All my Pierson love always,
Master G.