Today is Veterans Day, a time of remembrance and gratitude, for those who served, fought, died, or are still living with the honor and horrors, who still hold to the oath they took. Some of you will encounter members of the VFW, standing in front of shops and public buildings, handing out little plastic poppies. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people refuse to take them, avoiding eye contact, or take them and drop them on the ground after they think they're out of sight. My heart breaks and my blood boils. I have had words with more than one of these people, assuming they're uninformed rather than ungrateful, and tried to explain to them the meaning of the poppies, but more importantly, the honor of the men and women handing them out. I have seen more go back, take a flower, and shake hands, or better yet, hug a Veteran.
I come from a family of military service, Marines, Navy and Army (Poppy was Army, Uncle Tommy was Navy, the Army-Navy game was always interesting). Growing up, we held Veterans Day presentations, school kids singing patriotic songs, reciting poems, presenting the Colors. And today, in the middle of the Panhandle, elementary schools are upholding that tradition. Almost 40 years ago, I memorized a poem for our school's presentation, and yes I can still recite it. I always thought it beautiful (even though it was written by a Canadian, *hugs*).
So here, to honor our Veterans, is that poem, an explanation of why Veterans hand out red poppies.
10 comments:
I usually ask not to be thanked; I'm the one who survived. But accepted, because you are you.
You still put your life on the line, and as a Patriot you still honor that oath. That deserves honor and gratitude. *hugs*
Heh, no picking on your Canadian readers.
Exile1981
You're welcome. I followed Wirecutter's links over here. Now, you're on my blogroll. Don't expect much traffic from that.
I am a humble man when I'm near a veteran. My family has history.
his name is on the declaration of independence
bison guy
Thanks Angel!
Don
I am currently a maint. man for a trailer park. I was blowing leaves out of the streets yesterday and I blew them out of a fairly large yard for an 80 year old guy. He came out to thank me and we got to talking and he had a Korean war vet license plate holder on his car. I thanked him for his service and wished him an early happy veterans day in case I didn't see him today. He said his MOS was as an MP but he was a machine gunner for the first 7 months over there. He said then he was moved off the line and spent the rest of his time chasing GI's out of, uh, professional houses.
He was going to go to our local Applebee's for a free dinner today. I am going to make sure to go there sometime and let them know I support them for doing this.
A heartfelt salute to those who served, and to those who gave their all....and Angel One, about the poem, well, would write more but damn keyboard is wet......
vaquero viejo
Thank you, Angel.
I'm an Army vet ( '83 to '90 ) with a few years of ROTC before that. I'm ashamed to say I never knew the history of the poppies. Thank you for that and, with your permission, I'm going to capture and re-use that for years to come. Thanks to you, and all our veterans - especially those who didn't make it back home.
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