it all happened again and again and again and again and again
On this Day of Remembrance, two songs by Eric Bogle about the First World War, lest we forget...
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (YouTube)
The Green Fields of France (YouTube) (performed by the Dropkick Murphys; video is historic photos)
And now some concerns for the servicemembers and veterans alive today, from Democracy Now! Because a 'thank you' means more when it's backed up by decent support and care:
Study: Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance
Sexual Assaults, Inadequate Healthcare Among Spate of Issues Facing Women Servicemembers
And my usual barrage of quotes for the day:
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official...
~Theodore Roosevelt
The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
~John F. Kennedy
It doesn't require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder, and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed, it won't be U.S. Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the Senate.
~George McGovern
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There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.
~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (YouTube)
The Green Fields of France (YouTube) (performed by the Dropkick Murphys; video is historic photos)
And now some concerns for the servicemembers and veterans alive today, from Democracy Now! Because a 'thank you' means more when it's backed up by decent support and care:
Study: Over 2,200 US Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance
Sexual Assaults, Inadequate Healthcare Among Spate of Issues Facing Women Servicemembers
And my usual barrage of quotes for the day:
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official...
~Theodore Roosevelt
The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without.
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
~John F. Kennedy
It doesn't require any particular bravery to stand on the floor of the Senate and urge our boys in Vietnam to fight harder, and if this war mushrooms into a major conflict and a hundred thousand young Americans are killed, it won't be U.S. Senators who die. It will be American soldiers who are too young to qualify for the Senate.
~George McGovern
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn't a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.
~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams