November 11

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diyAudio Retiree
Joined 2002
"I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is."

-- "Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut, 1973

Happy 80th Birthday Mr. Vonnegut,
Fred



They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

-- from "For The Fallen" by Laurence Binyon, 1914
 
Hi Fred and All,

I wanted to post something on the topic of Rememberance Day but I could not find the "right" thing to say so thanks for your post.

My Dad and two of his Brothers went to war in Europe and after Juno Beach only my Dad came home, not quite the same man according to my Mother.

This year November 11 is somewhat more poignant with all that has come and gone recently and the Drums of War being beaten again, or still.

I hope that reason prevails.



Tony D.
 
I missed the draft by exactly three, and that was the last of the draft thereafter. Had a couple friends who were going through college after Viet Nam (when I was an undergrad), used to throw down the Rheingold's at "The Web" until closing with them -- which was a few hours before Sunday Mass ! Boy did we kill some brain cells.

Aaahhhh, the early 1970's with the smell of beer, the smell of weed, the sound of Janis Jopelin, the refugees from Woodstock and not knowing whether you were going to be toting a rifle next semester. You youngsters will never understand.
 
I was drafted

I was playing bass six nights a week - and considered being drafted a major inconvenience to say the least - They didn't draw numbers in those years

I did not believe in our role in Viet Nam. However, even more than that I did not believe in evading the draft.

I met and married my first wife while I was in which began a 13 year period of the most miserable years of my life.

I served most of my 2 years as an instructor and the Army never took me more than 110 miles from my home. I was one of the luckiest drafties ever.

I seperated as a Sargeant and worked hard to do my best while I was in. However, I can think of few things I have dislike more in my life than being in the military. I guess my outlook might have been different if I had volunteered.

Although I didn't like it personally, I have great respect for our military and met some really sharp people.

I really do appreciate those who are serving for our country

Ken
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Touching Fred. Thank You :hat on heart smiley:


The closest anyone in my family got to the War was my dad who was in training at age 19 when the war ended.

My grandfather (his father) deserted from the Austro-Hungarian army because he didn't like the idea of killing people (he then came to the NE US and then on to Saskatchewan)

dave
 
History Repeats....

My mother once showed me a small box in her collection that is an heirloom.
In that box was a reusable syringe, needles and a sharpening stone.
My mother explained that as a child she heard loud knocking on the door at 3.00 am one night, and that the Gestapo came and took my school headmaster grandfather away.
He was taken to concentration camp for 3 years for being in the Danish resistance, and in this camp he was assigned as a medical officer.
As my mother explained, that little box enabled him to survive, and he wrote a book about it in Danish, that I should learn to read.
I did get to meet my grandfather a good number of times, and his calm and compassion are qualities that permeate.

Let us all hope that in the near future, all wars be banished and mankind learn to live in happy and beneficial cooperation.
I hope that the information age that we now are part of, be used correctly to enlighten and make aware, all of us around the planet of the perils we face in our climatically and environmentally changing future.

Surely these subjects are of greater import than any ideological or political differences, and may ALL of the world learn by the terrible mistakes already made.

Eric
 
Ex-Moderator
Joined 2002
Happy Birthday Fred,:birthday:

Thanks for the remembrance of Armistice Day. It is truly a day of remembrance and honoring those that have sacrificed for a free world. It is particularly poignant for my family as we lost my brother in Viet Nam in ’69.

I do see it as Armistice Day, but as Veterans Day as well. It’s the sacrifice that is sacred.:hbeat:

“In Flanders Field”
by Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D. (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

“In Flanders Field the poppies blow,…
http://www.nichecom.com/~vfw/ff.html

Rodd Yamashita
 
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