Remember ...
Remember them all. The ones who have fallen and gone. The ones who have fallen but live. The ones who still serve.
And then there are the ones who are falling even as they serve ~ Since the start of the Afghanistan war in 2001, there have been more soldier suicides than soldier combat deaths.
Never forget, because only in remembering do we have a chance to learn.
***
My graphics skills are fairly poor I know, but this is a topic I have emotions about. There is plenty of poetry about the glory of winning war, about the dead on Flanders Fields, and about heroic battles. This poem by William Gibson always struck a note with me because it addresses something which is rarely acknowledged, and that is how war changes a person. Some soldiers never return home, though their hearts keep beating and their faces greet their loved ones.
I will stop for two minutes at 11am. What I wish fervently is that the politicians who stop for that two minutes, use the silence, to really think about every soldier, of every nation, friend or foe, and consider the enormity of war and the ways to avoid it.
***
~meh~ I'm an optimist. Emotional outburst over ... feel free to pass on by.