ProetryPlace Blog 67 On Veterans Day 2014
The class bell rang at 11:00 AM. The teacher said please stop what you are doing, rise and face the east. It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Armistice Day.
Until Armistice Day, the day to honor those fallen in battle in World War I, became Veterans Day in 1947, the ritual of solemn observation was the same for us in every grade from first through ninth, a few moments of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. At some point, one of my teachers read John McCrae’s stirring poem, In Flanders Field. Its quiet words spoke more eloquently to me than any I had heard before. It still does. His poem speaks of the aftermath of the Battle of Ypres, Belgium in 1915.
This is McCrae’s best known poem and probably the best known poem of The War to End All Wars.
McCrae, a Canadian Army physician died of pneumonia in France before the end of the war and remains there today. Following is an excerpt from another of his poems, The Unconquered Dead. Again, fallen soldiers speak to us from the grave.
The last survivors of that Great War died earlier this century. Now, on this day especially, we continue to honor the American veterans, living and dead, of all our wars. There are no thanks great enough for those who made the supreme sacrifice of their young lives to preserve our freedoms. There are no words adequate to honor them for their service. But they continue to speak to us.
When will we listen?
