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Yes, I will take up the quarrel, yes I will catch the torch. In fact it was given to me as a baby when my dear great grandfather Harry Phillips held me. He knew....
I continue to hope that will happen but my faith gets shaken time and time again.
Having been to the cemetery at Omaha beach in France and to see so many rows of crosses and then 50 years ago last month having been off the coast of Israel for the 1973 Israel war to see war happening again and again I wonder if things will ever change.
Some will die in hot pursuit
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
This poem commemorates the Battle of Passchendaele:
The armies under British command suffered some 275,000 casualties at Passchendaele, a figure that makes a mockery of Haig’s pledge that he would not commit the country to "heavy losses.” Among these were 38,000 Australians, 5,300 New Zealanders, and more than 15,600 Canadians; this final figure was almost exactly the total that had been predicted by Currie ahead of the battle. The Germans suffered 220,000 killed or wounded. At the end, the point of it all was unclear. In 1918 all the ground that had been gained there by the Allies was evacuated in the face of a looming German assault. Passchendaele would be remembered as a symbol of the worst horrors of the First World War, the sheer futility of much of the fighting, and the reckless disregard by some of the war’s senior leaders for the lives of the men under their command.
Comments
A thanks to all veterans who have picked up the torch.
Brad Steele
It’s been a few years. Brought to the top.
Brad Steele
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Yes, I will take up the quarrel, yes I will catch the torch. In fact it was given to me as a baby when my dear great grandfather Harry Phillips held me. He knew....
"Independence Now, Independence Forever."
John Adams
Not to be a snit, but those sentiments are better suited to Memorial Day, when we honor those who died in service.
Veterans Day is for those still with us.
I continue to hope that will happen but my faith gets shaken time and time again.
Having been to the cemetery at Omaha beach in France and to see so many rows of crosses and then 50 years ago last month having been off the coast of Israel for the 1973 Israel war to see war happening again and again I wonder if things will ever change.
Thanks for this again Don.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
This poem commemorates the Battle of Passchendaele:
The armies under British command suffered some 275,000 casualties at Passchendaele, a figure that makes a mockery of Haig’s pledge that he would not commit the country to "heavy losses.” Among these were 38,000 Australians, 5,300 New Zealanders, and more than 15,600 Canadians; this final figure was almost exactly the total that had been predicted by Currie ahead of the battle. The Germans suffered 220,000 killed or wounded. At the end, the point of it all was unclear. In 1918 all the ground that had been gained there by the Allies was evacuated in the face of a looming German assault. Passchendaele would be remembered as a symbol of the worst horrors of the First World War, the sheer futility of much of the fighting, and the reckless disregard by some of the war’s senior leaders for the lives of the men under their command.