11.11.11





For those who were killed in battle,

For those who gave up their lives to save others

For those who fought because they were forced to,

For those who died standing up for a just cause

For those who said war was wrong,

For those who tried to make the peace

For those who prayed when others had no time to pray



For those creatures who needlessly die

For those trees that needlessly are slaughtered

For all of mankind



let us quietly pray:



May your God hold them in peace

May Love flow over the Earth and cleanse us all

This day and for always.

Always a day i stop and remember the sacrifice so many made, and those who made it but bore the scars. In this era many families are still living with the loss and pain caused.

Thankyou for my freedom

And to one hero who did his part, i miss you more than anything KX89245.

mdiver said:

Oh my God, how strong are those words, yet we often take so much for granted.

to you!

There is a cemetary not far, with so many young soldiers, 16, 17, 18 who died for their country.

They will never be forgotten, and I am happy one day is set for us to stand still, remember and pray, as the other days we can go on with our lives quite selfishly.

we really are so freaking fortunate it's ridiculous


we will remember them.

emm said:

It totally is. It makes me ashamed.

Love your avatar.

They shall not grow old as we who 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.


One of my favourite poems

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

11th November 1919
The First Two Minute Silence in London:

The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect.

The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition.

Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of 'attention'. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still ... The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain ... And the spirit of memory brooded over it all.

~~From the Manchester Guardian, 12th November 1919.~~

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 disappointed shells 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 floundering 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.

mdiver said:

Beautiful.

(And look at the shambles our country is now, for all they fought for. ) We need to make a stand, and not only be proud of our ancestors but ourselves and our future genererations to come.

benyamin said:

Owen had it right.

All these years later, and still so many brainwashed children dying for a war that is not theirs.

WE read books, watch movies, hear stories, but we can never ever imagine what it was really like and what those brave people went through for us.
[Edited 11/9/07 9:55am]

benyamin said:

Those words, in English or Latin, still give me goose bumps. Makes me wonder if this generation could stand on the wall like those before us.

If George and Dick had to gear up and fight, would we still be at war?

mdiver said:

Don't even ask that question, for sadly we already know the answer.

mdiver said:

I think the sense of honour has largely disappeared, but people are still willing to fight. Modern warfare doesn't compare to what they faced though. That was chaotic and mental. I can see where the honour aspect came in though; on a field with thousands of others like you fighting for the same belief...

benyamin said:

Honour comes from inside and a sense of community,pride and commonality.....cant see the burberry wearing chav twats having that....plus you cant wear a helmet sideways with leisure wear. Many of those that fell would turn in their grave if they saw how the freedom they died for is being used

Many of us may have had Grandparents/Great Uncles etc who fought for our freedom.

Will our daughters and sons, grandchildren also respect Remembrance Day and those who fell for our freedom?

mdiver said:

mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidove tergo

MissMe said:

They had better had do. My kids will be raised to remember and bow their heads in respect and thanks.

A couple of years ago i was driving to an appointment on 11.11 and as the silence approached i pulled over in to a layby and stepped out of the car. A truck pulled in behind me and the driver did the same. We stood in silence and listened to 11 chime. It was eerie as we stood there and at the end of the silence we simply nodded to each other and went our way.It made me feel proud that many still do respect and remember. There are many of our generation that remember, it is up to us to remind the next generation that they are here because of those that fell.

mdiver said:

True though. I want the 1920s back.

MissMe said:

mdiver said:

I remember last year.
I was in a shop in town and an announcement came up 5 minutes prior to the minutes silence.
Everybody stopped. Tills stopped. Transactions stopped. Chatting stopped.
One lady I do remember chatted away to her husband, and shouted at him for ignoring her as he stood in silence too. My blood curdled, as did others I expect, from looking at their faces. Need I say what she was wearing? Maybe it was totally irrelevant and just pure coincidence.
We were saddened to say the least.

I was in a very busy supermarket last remembrance day there was complete silence everything stopped.

mdiver said:

I remember studying Latin at school.
Of course I do not understand latin but reading the translation, I mean, WOW, I wish we studied more.

MissMe said:

I dont think so people are more aware of what the governments are doing war is the last resort

To all those who have fallen and to the men and women still fighting

oldpurple said:

I don't see the correlation