Remembrance Sunday (UK)

Subject: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:48 AM

Thank you, to all of you.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:40 AM

We sang Les Sullivan's Roses of No Man's Land - which we recorded on Remembrance Sunday last year - at the Haddenham concert yesterday evening.

Kitty and Derek

Subject: Lyr Add: REMEMBRANCE DAY (Leon Rosselson)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:49 AM

REMEMBRANCE DAY
Written by Leon Rosselson
As recorded by Leon Rosselson on "Turning Silence into Song" (2004)

It was Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph.
The rain was falling fast.
The Queen was there with her entourage,
Watching the old comrades march past.

There were wreaths of scarlet flowers,
And we wore our poppies with pride.
The brass bands played funeral music.
And one or two people cried.

When Big Ben chimed eleven,
We solemnly bared our heads
And stood for the two-minute silence
To remember the glorious dead.

It was at that sacred moment
That I heard an eerie sound.
A ghastly ghostly stirring
Seemed to come from under the ground,

And a voice rose up out of the darkness,
A voice that was coarse and ill-bred,
Saying: "I am the voice of the fallen,
And I am the voice of the dead.

"I speak for the silent slaughtered,
The ones who rot under the grass,
And we don't want your two-minute silence,
So stuff it up your arse."

Then I thought I heard an explosion,
And a kind of a sob or a laugh,
And a faint aroma of corpses
Hung round the Cenotaph.

The Queen stood straight as a ramrod,
And none of the mourners stirred.
In spite of the two-minute silence,
No one had heard a word.

Though it seems a small bunch of fanatics
Had tried to dishonour the day
By shouting, "Remember Iraq!"*
But they were soon hustled away.

Then the two-minute silence was over,
And we heard the wind and the rain,
And from Horse Guards Parade, a gun sounded.
Normal life started again.

It was Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph.
The Queen was dressed in black,
And the bishop conducted a service
For the ones who never came back.

[* An earlier version of the song had "Remember Biafra."]

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:52 AM

That was Leon Rosselson's REMEMBRANCE DAY, spelled 'Remembrance.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:18 PM

Today, I got on my bus to go to work. It was one minute to eleven.

A minute later, the bus stopped again. The driver pulled over and from his cab came the sound of the music being played at the Cenotaph...then the silence, broken only by the worried, whispered voice of the little girl in the front...

"What's happening, Mummy?"

"Shhhhhhhhh, darling.....We're staying quiet to think about the soldiers who've died in wars for us. Today is a special day when we do that."

"Why do we do that, Mummy?"

"Because it's important, now hush for a little while longer."


And silence returned to the bus.


Then.....the Silence was over...and the driver started his engine again....as we set off for town once more.

It's the first time I've ever been on a bus at that time, ever seen one stopped...and it felt so right. The British Legion have done a wonderful job in bringing back respect for this day.

Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan, two more soldiers woke to their last ever day, unknowingly to die on a day when so many of their comrades were already being thought about..

And right now, having heard this terrible news of two more lives cut short, in a war which seems to make no sense, have no reason, I can only start to imagine how their families must be feeling.

May they all somehow find peace.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: the fence
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:24 PM

when I look at all the pain in this world I wonder if there is a God. If there is, then may that God protect our heroes.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:31 PM

I took part in the Remembrance Parade at Worksop War Memorial today. There was a good turnout and MOST of the people there were there to pay homage to those who paid such a terrible price for our freedom. Sadly the Last Post and Two Minute silence were totally wrecked by two young lads (about 8-10 years old) who kicked up one hell of a noise which disrupted everything. They were chasing each other and screaming and laughing whilst their mother just stood by and ignored them.

Amazingly, the little brats then walked calmly to the memorial and placed little crosses with someone's name on them. Maybe I'm intolerent but wouldn't you have thought their parents would have briefed them and insisted on good behaviour?

Blessings
Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:33 PM

The troops themselves believe in God...despite all they are having to endure....and the crowds at The Cenotaph were far greater than normal...

Remembrance Sunday in Afghanistan - Youtube


And here's to Harry Patch...and Harry Farr...

Harry Patch

Harry Farr

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: the fence
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:38 PM

I have never seen so many people at the Cenotaph in Louth. I would think it was the same throughout the whole of the U.K.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 05:48 PM

It was the first time that there were no veterans of the first world war but there were increased numbers at the Cenotaph.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: bruceCMR
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:00 PM

Celtic Music Radio, like most other broadcasters, observed the silence.

Leading up to 11, we played Dick Gaughan's recording of Hamish Henderson's "51st (Highland) Division's Farewell To Sicily"

After the silence - which was actually the ambient noise from the presenter's garden in Fife - we had Eric Bogle's own recording of his "No Man's Land" ("The Green Fields of France")

What other songs of our genre would be appropriate?

Bruce.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: gnu
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:03 PM

Lest we forget.

The bus... thanks.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:31 PM

What other songs?

Loads. But I'd settle for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17FqGboh4-A

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: GUEST,A Poem From the First Gulf War
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 02:28 AM

Once again, the politicians,
Whose only talent is for lying,
Send young men to do what they dare not do,
And do their killing and their dying.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 03:01 AM

I was at the service in Barnet as usual.
There were more people attending than usual.
Many people clapped the TA contingent as they marched past.
As usual, the vicar said no prayers for, or even mentioned in church, the armed forces past or present.

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 03:30 AM

I don,t know why but on Friday I was very sad and had a sudden urge to pay respects to our servicemen who have made and are still making great sacrifices, this video is my humble result.

My Grandson is a marine now!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvVyTY7X0f8

whb

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 04:30 AM

In my new church, the names of the dead are inscribed in the east wall, behind the altar (the original church was built in 1909 and the present building a few years later), where they can be always seen, not just thought of on one or two days a year.

We had the Last Post played for us, and most poignant for me, sang 'Eternal Father, strong to save' - for those in peril on the sea. 4 members of my family; 2 brothers, their cousin and a father in law were all killed in 24 hours in 1916, at the Battle of Jutland, their only grave, the sea.

I shall stop at 11.00am tomorrow, wherever I am, as I always have done since I worked in a military museum. Reading the actual war diaries, some stained with the mud and blood of Flanders, brought it all much nearer than any moving documentary or patriotic (jingoistic?) ceremony. These country men didn't go to fight for their monarch or a flag on a pole, they went to keep their mothers, their sisters, their wives and children safe. Again and again and again.

LTS

Subject: RE: Rememberance Sunday (UK)
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 05:00 AM

I could not dig, I dare not rob,
Therefore I lied to please themob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
                               R.Kipling

Subject: Lyr Add: THEY'RE BRINGING MY SON HOME TODAY
From: Sugwash
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 05:25 AM

THEY'RE BRINGING MY SON HOME TODAY
©J.A.Sugden March 2007

As I sit on his bed I remember his smile,
They're bringing my son home today,
In this photo he's beaming, surrounded by mates,
They're bringing my son home.
His birth was a hard one, the wife suffered and how;
We'd not have another, we both made that vow.
But the pain she felt then is nothing to what she feels now.
They're bringing my son home today.

There's an interview with his old headmaster,
They're bringing my son home today,
He's saying he was a popular student,
They're bringing my son home.
But he was in trouble from first to last;
Our hopes of university quickly passed.
When the police were involved his mum was aghast.
They're bringing my son home today.

After school he just drifted,
They're bringing my son home today,
From dole to dead-end job and back,
They're bringing my son home.
Then out of the blue he'll be a marine.
The wife was in hysterics and causing a scene.
I encouraged him, God help me, "Go serve the Queen".
They're bringing my son home today.

He loved it, all the training,
They're bringing my son home today,
The hard graft and camaraderie,
They're bringing my son home.
Then training was ended and come the day,
The look on his face when he got his green beret.
We were both so proud he'd found his own way.
They're bringing my son home today.

Then he's off on his first deployment,
They're bringing my son home today,
To a land far from this English shore,
They're bringing my son home.
He relished the action; it's what he'd joined for.
Part of an elite, the esprit de corps.
Then one evening, the knock on our door
They're bringing my son home today.

Downing Street expresses regrets.
They're bringing my son home today.
Politicians spouting platitudes.
They're bringing my son home.
His C.O., more honest, says "He was a good bloke.
Always stood by his mates; always ready with a joke."
The wife is in pieces, I think her heart's broke
They're bringing my son home today.

There're flowers outside the barracks gate
They're bringing my son home today
The Union flag flies at half-mast
They're bringing my son home
An old man pauses, then throws a salute
They'll say my son died serving his country; that I'll dispute
He died serving a policy dreamt up by a suit
They're bringing my son home today.

The bugle will play the Last Post,
They're bringing my son home today,
As they carry him slowly down the ramp.
They're bringing my son home.
I've watched that scene too often before,
But this time it's my son, a by-product of a lousy war.
Can somebody tell me just what he died for?
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home today,
They're bringing my son home.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: GUEST,Pistachio - unplugged
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 07:07 PM

Tears falling -
Such sorrow
Lets think of each and every one
Tomorrow









Hazel.x

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 09:39 PM

The long prayer

Link posted without comment.

DeG

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:02 AM

I will comment.
Anti war sentiments are noble and commendable every day of the year.
We only have one day of Rememberance.
On that one day can we just express gratitude and sorrow for the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces in past and present conflicts?

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:20 AM

A letter in Monday's Guardian said:

Why, as a nation, are we so brilliant at remembering and so hopeless at learning?

I'd go along with that.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:05 AM

Compared to which other nations that are worse?

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:41 AM

better/worse

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:45 AM

It doesn't have to be compared.

This thread shows that we can be brilliant at remembering our war dead.

The fact we still keep going to war and letting soldiers be unnecessarily killed shows we learn nothing from it.

That's all.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:00 AM

Poem 212 of 230: REMEMBER THEM?

Back when we became defenders
    (We have plainly been attackers),
Defenders' blood, sweat and years
    Were paid to keep a good home-way -
A way yet to be part stealth-blown,
    As mass immigration gained-sway
And as we slipped as maintainers.

From http://blogs.myspace.com/walkaboutsverse (e-book)
Or http://walkaboutsverse.sitegoz.com (e-scroll)
(C) David Franks 2003

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:07 AM

Keith A:
"Anti war sentiments are noble and commendable every day of the year.
We only have one day of Rememberance."

So you won't be joining in two minutes silence tomorrow?

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE FINE YOUNG MEN (Eric Bogle)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:30 AM

One from Mr Bogle - BOTH Great Wars !

ALL THE FINE YOUNG MEN
(Eric Bogle)

They told all the fine young men of when this war is over
There will be peace and the peace will last forever
In Flanders Field, at Lone Pine and Bersheeba
For king and country, for honour and duty
The young men fought and cursed and wept and died
They told all the fine young men of when this war is over
In your country's grateful heart we will cherish you forever
At Tobruk and Alamein, at Bhuna and Kokoda
Like their fathers before, in a world mad with war
The young men fought and cursed and wept and died

For many of those fine young men all the wars are over
They have found peace, it's the peace that lasts forever
When the call comes again they will not answer
They're just forgotten bones lying far from their homes
As forgotten as the cause for which they died

Ah young men, can you see now why they lied

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:39 AM

Anti war sentiments are noble and commendable every day of the year.
We only have one day of Rememberance.
On that one day can we just express gratitude and sorrow for the sacrifices made by members of the armed forces in past and present conflicts?

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:46 AM

I am not sure you are on this earth or Fullers.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:53 AM

Just start an anti war thread, and argue that peace is much nicer than war.
Nobody actually will argue with you, but at least we will be able to have a Remembrance thread just for Remembrance.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 06:14 AM

All these men, whose lives and deaths we commemorate, share a common ideal of service and loyalty to their country.

They deserve our respect and support in whatever actions they are dispatched to undertake. They put themselves in harms way to make OUR lives safer and more secure.

All the more reprehensible then that their lives are wasted, in the pursuit of political advantage and adventure, by men who are not fit to clean their boots.

I mean of course the politicians who lie to the public in order to indulge in wars of acquisition (Iraq!), and worse, wars with no genuine purpose other than to keep the populace scared enough to give up their civil liberties, in exchange for a spurious promised security (Afghanistan!).

We need to impress upon our governments that we KNOW that the best way to avoid terrorist attacks on our homelands is to keep our NOSES out of other countries' business, and our TROOPS at home defending OUR OWN shores.

This is true for Britain, and it is true for the USA, and were it taken to heart by those who rule, we might one day be celebrating, on the 11th November at 11.00am, in remembrance of the last ever soldiers killed in foreign lands.

Don T

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 06:35 AM

Wrong thread Don.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 09:55 AM

"They're just forgotten bones lying far from their homes
As forgotten as the cause for which they died"
Bogle's lines posted above are false.
The cause is not forgotten. They marched to prevent Europe being conquered by the cruel invading armies that poured out of an aggressive Germany.
The anti Fascist cause is alive and well, not least on this forum.

Neither are they forgotten bones.
In all that list of places their graves are carefully kept and attended, and the numbers making the pilgrimage to visit them grows year on year.
And bugles still call for them from sad shires.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 01:46 PM

And also remember the young men of Argentina who were murdered by Thatcher in 1982. I dare you to stand by the Malvinas Memorial in BA on April 2 with Malvinas veterans, looking obviously English.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 01:52 PM

There are no winners in war!

Blessings
Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 02:06 PM

I'm always uneasy about these 2 min silences which always bring to mind Edward VIII's 'something must be done'. And we do nothing but con more young men into getting killed. Visiting the war graves in Normandy is a much more poignant experience. I think I became uneasy when there was a 2 min silence after the dreadful Dunblane killing. I was by the sea and the 2 minutes was heralded by gun fire - just how insensitive can the authorities get; then a thousand screaming seagulls took to the air. The most noisy 2 minutes silence ever. Can't we do something more positive.

Subject: Lyr Add: LANGEMARCK (George Papavgeris)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 02:50 PM

Langemarck
© Copyright George Papavgeris, November 2003

The guard never changes in Langemarck
Four figures that quiet and motionless stand
No guns, only helmets they hold in their hand
To show their respect
The Langemarck Guardians will never forget.
The guard never changes in Langemarck
Their faces in sombre expression are set
And is it just mourning or is is it regret
But they cannot speak
Their thoughts are a secret that never will leak.

It's never too busy in Langemarck
The visits from home getting fewer each year
Their faces get younger, there's hardly a tear
It seems such a shame
Only granite and metal remembers their name.
And all is in order in Langemarck
Not one of the crosses dares move out of line
And all of the names there in sequence you'll find
But isn't it strange
That even in death the roll-call hasn't changed.

There's fourty-four thousand in Langemarck
Though clever design gives a feeling of peace
Yet still you will find here no welcome release
But only the proof
That generals' dreams are the curse of the youth
As you stroll among graves in Langemarck
And even though you are the only one there
The back of your neck feels a following stare
Though they have no eyes
The look of the Guardians is colder than ice.

CHORUS:
But guilt is not buried in Langemarck
Just those born one side of the border
Who just had to follow an order
In Flanders to finish their days.
And friendships are easy in Langemarck
In one grave the sons of eight mothers
Before death unknown to each other
But friends in their final embrace.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 02:53 PM

It is anti-war, Keith, but not anti-remembrance as well. Just pro-truth. Our remebered dead are the ones our enemies prayed for victory over and their remebered dead are the ones we wanted to destroy. Then we both pray for our fallen. It is indeed a day for remembrance and we should never detract from it. Rather, let us add to it and remember all the fallen. After all, we (the global 'we' that is) are responsible for the fallen of both sides. We wanted and prayed for it to happen.

DeG

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:06 PM

Tonight, on the BBC News I watched the six soldiers who died last week, come home. Five were murdered by their Afghan colleague.

They were flown in to Wooton Bassett, in Wiltshire....


Six soldiers come home...

Eight more soldiers come home, who died in the summer...

The town must be filled with such sorrow. Today, there was barely any space anywhere, the crowds were so deep...One young woman told how she has now lost 23 of her friends in Afghanistan..

And earlier in the day, people had come into the shop where I work...and one man was telling me how his son and his colleagues are driving round in 40 year old trucks. Another lady looked up and said that her daughter was out there for 6 weeks, and they only provided a sleeping bag for her two days before she was due to come home...

Meanwhile, as our troops have also been buying their own flak jackets at times, our politicians, from the top, down....have been removing hundreds of thousands of pounds from the public purse in crooked expenses.....

And our Prime Minister cannot even spell the name of one soldier who died, upsetting his mother almost beyond endurance...




And another tear filled petal fell into the poppy field......

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 03:48 PM

I accept defeat.
We can not honour our fallen without also saying that war is always wrong, therefor they were wrong to fight.
And we must give equal honour to the aggressors who died trying to kill them and enslave their homeland.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: mg
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:31 PM

It is great that you are all remembering the fallen..but I am confused why it is not on NOvember 11, which I will always call Armistice Day. mg

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:46 PM

mg: we always do the big march and laying of the wreaths on the nearest Sunday to the 11th, mainly because it is the one day when people are available, and London is relatively quiet. The 11th falls on Wednesday this year and Whitehall will be heaving with traffic and people.

Many people (including me) observe a 2 mins silence at 11am on the 11th as well.

Blessings
Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: mg
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:06 PM

I guess I thought you would have a formal day off as we do here. mg

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:20 PM

even as an American, this thread has moved me to tears. Just the tribute to Harry Patch was enough... but there was more, and I wept again.

Your Remembrance Day is a fine tradition, and I will think of it on our similar days.

Thank you for the moving words...

Subject: Lyr Add: MESOPOTAMIA (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Mr Fox
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 05:21 PM

MESOPOTAMIA

They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,
Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?

They shall not return to us, the strong men coldly slain
In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain,
Are they too strong and wise to put away?

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide -
Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour?
When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their friends,
To confirm and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us - their death could not undo -
The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
Shall we leave it unabated in its place?

- Kipling

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 08:31 PM

""I accept defeat.
We can not honour our fallen without also saying that war is always wrong, therefor they were wrong to fight.
And we must give equal honour to the aggressors who died trying to kill them and enslave their homeland.""

Once again Keith, you completely miss the point.

NOBODY, least of all ME, is saying they were wrong to fight!!

They did what they were sworn to do when they joined.

The bastards that sent them, and others, to the wrong wars for the wrong reasons are the villains of the piece, and if you can't see the difference between that and disrespect for the gallant men who did the dying, then you are as f**ked up as the politicos who still believe that we will tamely swallow their lies.

As to your "wrong thread" comment, where better to protest on their behalf than a place where we are acknowledging their sacrifice in OUR behalf?


Don T.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 02:05 AM

I just thought we might have a thread, at the time of Remembrance, to honour the fallen of this country without you sticking your enormous BUT in.
They were brave, BUT too stupid to know that it was the wrong war.
They died for us, BUT were led like sheep for a false cause.
Like comic Henny Pennies they rushed around and got killed protecting us from a non existant threat.

I do not believe that version of history, and collections of their letters do not support it either.
But if I challenge we will just be debating the necessity of this war and that war. There are dozens if not hundreds of such threads you could have used. You just could not be arsed to, or to start yet another one at this time of Remembrance, so you hijacked this one.

However, I concede that not one contributor agrees with me so I will shut up.

Subject: RE: Remembrance Sunday (UK)
From: eddie1
Date: 11 Nov 09 - 04:24 AM

If we can accept that Mudcat represents a microcosm, similar to the "real world" outside and that wars are fought over greed – greed for power, material gain ("I'm scoring more points than you"), greed to show that I'm more clever, intellectual or intelligent than you and we look at the arguments we at Mudcat get into, from our entrenched beliefs, then it's not surprising that wars continue. Perhaps it's a universal failing in the human race?

Before someone challenges me for having the wrong day, let me make it clear that I'm in the UK, a totally different time zone from the US. It's now just after 0915 on Wednesday 11th November. At 1100, I will sit quietly for 2 minutes and remember. Remember those who have fallen, remember those who lived on for a time, battered and broken in body or in mind, and think of those who have lost, and are continuing to lose, loved ones.

I have no difficulty in wishing at the same time that we could be blessed with peace. This does not mean that I think any less of those I will remember!

Eddie