A Thank You, on the Occasion of Veteran's -- Armistice Day

[Seamus Fermanagh]

All gave some; some gave all.

Today is the day set aside by many countries, at least in the West, to honor their military veterans. As you students of history will know, the day was chosen because at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 an armistice brought and end to the active fighting in "The War to End All Wars." We all know the sad irony of that label.

I hope you will join me in honoring those veterans -- living and among the majority -- for their service. Most of you, rightly, find war outside of video games to be abhorrent and many of you disdain the very idea of nationalism. You may be leery of a day which seems to celebrate militarism and violence, but that is only the trappings of service that make such rollicking movies and stirring stories.

We honor their service.

Many volunteered while others were forced to serve -- but they served. Some served bravely and beyond all expectations, others poorly, not quite able to cope with the horrors they faced. Most just served. Dreaming of home, of a return to their lives, of the communities they had left behind. Some never returned home, others returned scarred and battered, most returned unscathed -- but not unmarked. We asked of them a service -- to take up arms and face others, mostly like themselves and sometimes to harm those other selves on the far side of some 'front line.' We asked, they served....and they always bear the burden of that service for us.

So I ask you to honor their service. Not the jingoisms of their era, or the causes they served, or the sometimes silly notions that drove this conflict or that. I ask you to honor their service to their communities; rendered in good faith at a price so that others in that community need not bear it.

All gave some; some gave all.



To the veterans among us, I thank you. On at least one level, your service, you are a better person than I. To you, and all those others who have joined the majority, I wish Godspeed....and peace.

JEM3



And now a few gems from others much more creative than I:

McRae's "In Flanders Fields" (recited on youtube)

Gelentke's "To Soldiers of the Great War" (English text, did not find the original in German; pm me with link and I will attach)

Bogel's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" sung by John Williamson

Gannon/Crosby's 1943 hit "I'll Be Home for Christmas"

Waters' "Gunners Dream"

and my personal favorite,

Bogel's "Green Fields of France"