Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and Veteran's Day in the US, so at some point today take a moment to think about the young men and now women that have given their lives to protect our freedoms. And they still are giving their lives for our country, 133 Canadians have died in Afghanistan since we first sent troops there. The latest, a young man from Calgary, Sapper Steven Marshall, just had his funeral today. 24 is way too young to die.
Anyway, as I said last year, there is only one real poem that I can recite, Flanders Fields, my grade 8 teacher had us learn it and I still know it by heart.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The birds, 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