Thank You Canada

[jmcquate]

I was looking for a poppy lapel pin for Remembrance Day (Veterans Day) and then I remembered that I work 3 blocks away from the Canadian Embassy. So I walk down there over lunch said to the guard desk " excuse me, I'm not a Canadian, but I was wondering if I could get a poppy lapel pin"? They just smiled and pointed to a big bowl full of them on a table in the reception waiting room. Thank You Canada.

 

[Flash]

My wife worked there for a while and for the longest time they had a small display honoring their fallen in Afghanistan. They do well honoring those who were killed in service.

 

[wink]

Good for you. When I was a kid you still saw red poppies on Veteran's Day. The Commonwealth Nations have stuck to the tradtion big time. The Tower of London moat has been FILLED with over 888,000 ceramic poppies. One for every Commonwealth WWI death. If you have been to the Tower, this is even more impressive. Every evening names from the butchers list is read and then Last Post is played. At night the Tower is bathed in red lights. Hail Britannia.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...pse-at-Tower-of-London-from-dawn-to-dusk.html

 

[nittany03]

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.

--Major John McRae, CA

 

[Flash]

...The Tower of London moat has been FILLED with over 888,000 ceramic poppies...

It is a bit staggering to think that the UK (not the Empire) lost 2% of its total population in the war. When you narrow it down to the age range of the men that served and costituted almost all of the dead it rises much higher. The cost to France was even worse with over 4% of their population killed in the war.

In Flanders fields...

Canadian schoolchildren are still taught that poem, my wife can still recite it by heart.