Reasons to remember

Readers write in about Remembrance Day.

Editor:

In the weeks leading up to Nov. 11, it is not surprising to see veterans and cadets stationed at the doors of supermarkets and shopping centres selling poppies.

Recently, I stopped by a young cadet, on duty in full uniform, and asked him if he knew the story of the poppy. His response was “no.”

I told him his education had failed him, and I proceeded to tell him about In Flanders Fields.

As I left, I suggested he Google the poem and also advise his superiors of his incomplete preparation for selling poppies.

“…we will remember them.”

Charles Grierson, Surrey

• • •

They leave family at home

These women and men

Traveling to all four corners of this blue planet

Weapons of steel and wood

Cloth to bandage wounds

Some to conquer, others to bring peace

Uniforms to rags they suffer

They do what they have been told

They suffer for doing it

And too many died doing it

We honour them with a tear

We cry for our loss

Flowers to say we still remember

We buy poppies to support the survivors

The survivors among us we salute

We listen to the past and what they have to say

They walk with us

Once a year we gather to remember these fallen souls

Let us honour the living

We pray that the number of fallen and wounded soldiers get fewer and fewer

Mike Stuyt, Surrey

 

 

Peace Arch News