Happy Armistice Day!!!

[Triumph]

Ninety-four years ago today (11 November 1918), fighting in the Great War (a.k.a. World War I) came to an end. This day is now Veterans Day in America, and while I appreciate veterans a great deal, it's also worth remembering the Great War specifically - and the millions who died in it.

[Randomizer]

The war to end all wars (at least for a few years) was supposed to make things better.

[Alorael at Large]

Let us never forget that a third of the soldiers who died died of Spanish Influenza, and that the disease claimed more lives than the fighting.

 

Get your flu shot.

 

Not that it will protect you from pandemic flu.

 

—Alorael, who isn't sure how well WW1 made things better. It arguably caused WW2 and the Holocaust.

[Harehunter]

I appreciate this salute, Triumph, and I add my salute as well.

 

I am wondering, how many other people on this forum have served their country in this way?

[Goldengirl]

—Alorael, who isn't sure how well WW1 made things better. It arguably caused WW2 and the Holocaust.

 

And the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the nationalist conflicts in the Middle East, and rebellion in Vietnam, and...

[Student of Trinity]

They shall grow not 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.

That is the 'Act of Remembrance' that was always recited at the Remembrance Day ceremonies that I had to attend in uniform when I was in the reserves in Canada. It always made me bitter. No doubt it was apt and heartfelt for the generation that had fought the Great War, and for those that fought the great wars after it. For my generation it was false. We had never known any of those young men our age who had been killed so long before we were born, so we would not remember them, no matter how solemnly we said we would. We mentally crossed our fingers as we stood on parade and repeated those words, and told ourselves that we would remember the fact that so many young soldiers had existed and died, and that would have to count as remembering them. It was the closest we could come.

 

We would never have known those men in any case, who were in the generations of our parents and grandparents. Their loss to us was invisible. We had not known their children or their grandchildren, who would otherwise have been our friends. We had not known all the things that many of them would have done, that might have changed the world for the better. We had not played with the toys they would have invented, read the novels they would have written, learned the things they would have discovered.

 

Growing old and facing the years is not a punishment they were lucky to escape. It is the price to be paid for living a lifetime, a price worth paying. They never got the chance to put their money down.

 

The loss to the world from the great wars of the twentieth century was incalculable, and it was permanent. It will never be made good. If humanity survives for millennia and spreads between the stars, we will still be forever poorer for the people we lost. If we falter and die out before then, it may be for want of something one of them might have done.

 

I prefer the British name for the day to the Canadian, though it is a name made obsolete by the wars after 1918. Perhaps the American name is even more honest, regarding the survivors whom we can still see instead of the forgotten dead; but I don't want to forget the dead entirely. The veterans gave much but the dead gave more.

 

I can remember no-one who fought, so my remembrance is no consolation in a day about loss. There is no sense in which Armistice Day can be happy, but we can at least be grateful that the loss was not even greater. There was an armistice. I'd rather not pretend there is anything better to say than that.

[Aran]

That is the 'Act of Remembrance' that was always recited at the Remembrance Day ceremonies that I had to attend in uniform when I was in the reserves in Canada.

 

I had no idea, but I just remembered hearing these lines near the end of a

. Knowing the context makes that scene very powerful.

[The Reincarnated Baron von Steuben]

"And when he goes to Heaven,

To Saint Peter he will tell,

Just another Marine reporting, sir!

I've served my time in hell."

 

Gravemarker of Unknown Marine,

Guadalcanal

[Lilith]

some words

 

fun fact: the original form of that poem used "contemn" (regard with contempt) rather than "condemn". the former word has fallen into desuetude now, which is when something gets so old and dry that all the suet drips out of it and it's no good any more

[Tyranicus]

I would say the word desuetude is well on it way into desuetude itself.

[Lilith]

that's because people stopped using suet

[keira]

 

I know I'm occasionally a rude condescending asshat but it's thanks to those badasses who go out and fight and risk dying (or worse, being near those camel spiders) for my right to be a rude condescending asshat.

 

So thanks

[Aran]

risk dying (or worse, being near those camel spiders)

 

Ditto on that one.

[The Reincarnated Baron von Steuben]

"I regret that I have but one live to give for my country"

 

-Nathan Hale

[Sudanna]

Armistice Day is a day of mourning, not glory.

[The Reincarnated Baron von Steuben]

That's not glory. Misinterpretations, misinterpretations.

[Harehunter]

To mourn, yes, but also to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

There is nothing glorious about war itself, nor should there ever be. On the other hand, glory is bestowed upon those who serve above and beyond the call of duty.

The price of liberty is not cheap. Because of that it must be held dearly.

To the veterans of all nationalities who have paid the price for our liberty,

 

Ego te saluto.

[The Reincarnated Baron von Steuben]

I couldn't have said it better.