Poppies, Cannons and Moments of Solemn Remembrance

Today I was dismissed early from my tutorial so that I could observe Armistice Day.  Here in England more and more people wear poppies on their lapels during the two weeks leading up to Armistice Day, today.  And at the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month, most people stop everything to observe a two minute silence, listening to the chiming of the clock, to remember the ending of hostilities of WWI on November 11, 1918.  A gun was shot at the top of the hour, and again at the end of the two minute silence.  And I paused in my step to reflect upon the horrors of war that the world has seen since the beginning of WWI in 1914, and upon how fortunate we are to still have a great deal of the liberty in the West.  Even more, as I heard the gunshots, I was audibly struck by the fact that war was on everyone’s doorstep here in England, while in the 20^th century we have never experienced the sustained threat of air raids, continual bombing and occupying forces on our homeland.  Now, I realize we did have the attack on Pearl Harbor and September 11.  But they were terrible horrors of a different kind.  It’s a blessed thing that on our soil during this century of worldwide wars we have been spared the perpetual fear of death and the constant sound of gunfire.  We have been spared the utter devastation of complete towns and unlike here, our city buildings aren’t blemished with scars from shrapnel.  We lost many men in wars this century, but we didn’t lose an entire generation in each World War to the extent they did here.  Their losses were absolutely pervasive in such a way we simply cannot know.  Which makes me deeply appreciate the honorable role the English have played in the world’s recent history, and further, it makes me profoundly grateful for the men and women who gave much of their time, efforts, honor and often their very lives, to keep these horrors away from us.  Their sacrifices made our peaceful lives possible; by offensively helping other nations, as with the Allies in WWII, they kept fascism, Nazism, communism, and other evils from severely upsetting our country.  Because of them I, one of their progeny, am a proud citizen of an America that is still a democratic republic rather than a communist state.  And for that, I will be forever thankful.  Cheers to all my fellow patriots this Veterans’ Day.