The reason for this holiday is not to be forgotten. It was at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918 that the guns went silent to end what history terms
The Great War, of World War One.
Remembrance Day continues to be held in honour of our veterans. Not just the 1914 -1918 conflict but also World War II, the Korean War, and the veterans of Canada’s overseas roles in places like Bosnia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. Let’s not forget either the events of September 11th, 2001 which reminded us that evil still exists in the world and there are those who would like to see our way of life destroyed and then rebuilt according to their barbaric and antiquated perception of how a male dominated, women subjugated, tyrannically religious society should function. Many of us wear red poppies at this time of year, the lasting symbol of November 11th. Tomorrow, the thinning ranks of veterans will don their uniforms and attend ceremonies to remind us of what they fought for, and what many of their comrades died for, which was to preserve our way of life; the rights and freedoms we enjoy to this day. We live in a land of relative freedom and prosperity compared to almost anywhere else on earth you could name.
Honoring those that have served isn’t just another day off to sleep in but rather to pause and reflect that there was a price to be paid for our freedom.
~ Lest we Forget ~
There are several stories I could share however it's a tad of a brain drain but I thought I would place in here a poem called In Flanders Field.
The poem "In Flanders Fields" by the Canadian army physician John McCrae remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.The most asked question is: why poppies? Wild poppies flower when other plants in their direct neighborhood are dead. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, but only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots up the ground), these seeds will sprout. There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil.
So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him blooded poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before. But in this poem the poppy plays one more role.
The poppy is known as a symbol of sleep. Some kinds of poppies are used to derive opium from, from which morphine is made. Morphine is one of the strongest painkillers and was often used to put a wounded soldier to sleep. Sometimes medical Doctors used it in a higher dose to put the incurable wounded out of their misery. 'In Flanders Fields' is also the name of an American War Cemetery in Belgium where 368 Americans are buried.
The cemetery got its name from the poem though. The bronze foot of the flagstaff is decorated with daisies and poppies. Another reference to the poem can be found on the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy, in Northern France. Between the pylons stands ‘The Spirit of Sacrifice’: a figure holding high a burning torch, obviously referring to the last verse of McCrae's poem.’ In Flanders Fields' may be the most famous poem of the Great War — sometimes only the first two verses are cited or printed. This is not just because of the lack of quality in the third verse, but also because this last verse speaks of an unending quarrels with the foe. And if one thing became clear during the Great War it was this: there was no quarrel between the soldiers (except maybe in the heat of a fight). The quarrel existed mainly in the minds of stupid politicians and generals who mostly never experienced the horror of the battlefield.
But McCrae was not opposed to war and this was not the first time he spoke of a continuing fight. Wars should go on, he thought, until all the wrongs of the earth are righted. In some countries authorities were so pleased with the pugnacious sentiments in the third verse of 'In Flanders Fields' that they exploited these lines in their propaganda. Since then the now widespread custom to honour with poppies those who died so that we could be free, has been, and still is, used and misused to justify wars. Nevertheless I will give you the full and exact version of McCrae's great poem, taken from his own, handwritten copy. But first, here is the story of how he wrote it — and how the recent death of a dear friend moved him.
The next evening the poem was wrote by McCrae while sitting on the rear step of an ambulance parked near the dressing station beside the Yser Canal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, McCrae vented his anguish by composing a poem. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry.As McCrae sat there he heard larks singing and he could see the wild poppies that sprang up from the ditches and the graves in front of him.
He spent twenty minutes of precious rest time scribbling fifteen lines of verse in a notebook. The poem originally entitled, "We shall not sleep" was very nearly not published. Dissatisfied with it, McCrae tossed the poem away, but Morrison retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England.
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.
Who will be the President of United States of America?
Rarely in American politics have voters been offered two presidential candidates more different than Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.Just how different is the subject of The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney, an incisive and intimate profile of the two presidential candidates that investigates how they've governed, and the places, people, and decisive moments that made them the men they are.More than 100 in-depth interviews with friends, family, authors, and journalists contribute to the most ambitious television biographies of the candidates ever created.To get the whole story, veteran producer Michael Kirk takes a fresh, contemporary look at the candidates’ lives and their political histories.It’s a documentary which according to what I see is not allowed in United States at this moment – yet if you have the time it’s worthy to take a listen to it if you so deem it.
The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney intimately follows the odyssey of young Barry Obama from near-poverty in Indonesia to his marijuana-smoking “Choom Gang” days in Hawaii, then to college in California and New York, where he moved inexorably toward finding a home in Chicago’s black community.Consumed by youthful angst, Obama’s own journals and letters reveal a confused young man on an identity quest.By the end of his journey, Barry becomes Barack, and a political method is born.
Mitt Romney grew up in an entirely different milieu, in a childhood defined by stability.The son of a powerful automobile executive and moderate Republican governor, young Mitt lived a privileged life of private schools and carefully guarded ideas.A Mormon, Romney spent more than two years as a missionary in France, fulfilling his obligation to the church while trying to complete the Sisyphean task of making abstinence from alcohol palatable in Bordeaux, of all places.While Mitt didn’t make many converts on his mission, friends and family say that after almost dying in an automobile accident, he was reborn as a more serious man with a strong faith and a belief in his own life’s purpose.Despite his success in business, Romney believed his destiny was in politics.He would eventually sell himself and his evolving political identity to voters.Lengthy interviews with family, close friends, colleagues, and political associates reveal a fuller picture of the real Mitt Romney
The Choice 2012: Obama v. Romney also probes the divergent leadership styles of Obama and Romney, focusing on the signature achievement of both men: health care reform.The documentary investigates their approaches to this boiling-button issue and what those approaches tell us about how they govern.The film also explores how, while in office, both men were confronted with a reluctant legislature dominated by political opponents.How they each handled that situation reveals much about their distinct political styles. Even on the ripest of Election Day mantras is sometimes true, literally every vote counts.And maybe it will be true again on Tuesday when Americans vote for a president.
Indeed, America does have a peculiar system for electing a president.The Electoral College tries to cap the influence of big states so that candidates can't ignore small states.One of the consequences of that system is that a great number of votes can count for nothing.For example, in 2008 John McCain won 2.5 million votes in the state of New York.He got zero votes in the Electoral College.He won 4.5 million votes in California, but again got none of California's votes in the Electoral College.On the other hand, Barack Obama won 210,000 votes in Washington D.C. and picked up 3 votes in the Electoral College.A little wonky, but that's the system.I’m obviously no expert in the intricacies of Electoral College calculations.But I've done my research for Tuesday night and it seems to me that where every vote is going to count is Ohio.It's been close there before.In 2004, John Kerry lost Ohio by two percentage points.Had he won the state, he'd have won the presidency from George W. Bush.In the last election it was close again.Barack Obama won 51.2 per cent of the vote, but he won so many other states, the Ohio result wasn't crucial.Things are much tighter this time, so it sure looks as if the winner in Ohio will give us our "Mr. President" moment in time.What time can we expect that?
Well, within the United States, television networks project election results based as a preliminary calculation based on what voters say when they leave the polling station, which in turn can be influential on Election Day…The United States electoral process there is extensive exit polling on Election Day.They stand outside a cross-section of polling stations in every state, and ask people who have just cast a ballot, how they voted.Then they run the results through sophisticated computer models and can often announce who won the state before a single vote is actually counted.Sometimes the results of the exit poll make the race too close to call, so a network will then wait for real results and see how well they're matching the exit vote before they're confident enough to make their call.It's a very rare occasion that everyone just waits for all the votes to be counted.
You can be sure that on Tuesday there will be much more exit polling in Ohio than usual.If there is no projection of a winner as soon as the polls close, you’ll know we're probably in for a long night.Let’s hope that America at Large does pull out all stops and votes without being influenced – rather they make their own choice based on whom they believe in.Not based on Projected Preliminary counts from State to State.
I was not paid to make this remark. It’s a post from one which was raised within the United States and looks from the “outside” and do look “within”.Yet I do believe that within every democracy when people have the right to vote – they exercise that very given right!
