Lest We Forget

Today marked the end of WWI some 95 years ago.  Our Honored dead are not forgotten, we all in our own way stop for a moment today to take breath and give tribute to the fortitude and sacrifice of these men.

They went to war when the world was ruled by empires, and beating the enemy wasn't about taking ground but to run them out of men.  A true meat grinder was the western front, with mud blood and disease.  Against all that is natural in man they went over the top into blinding machine gun fire to face certain death, something that I couldn't even imagine.

Although the world has seen the passing of the last veteran their sacrifice means more today than ever, they fought for what was right, and in the end they changed the world forever.

I wonder though if at times we forget the free world the lived in, the freedom of travel and ideas, but I transgress.  Today celebrated the 20th anniversary of the re-internment of the unknown soldier at the national war memorial.  I like millions of others have visited that sacred space, and shed a silent tear and the loss of all those boys.  He is a shining light of every reason in the world why we fight he in his death serves his nation in a way no one else can, and I hope because of that he rests in peace with all of his mates.

I took a little girl with me to the memorial, she turned to me when we got to the wall beside the contemplation pool.  "Did all those people die?"  I said yes, they died for you and me.  She stood close.  Then two kids started playing in the pool.  She spun around and said quite loudly "you shouldn't do that you will disturb all those people on the wall".   Smart kid hey?  When we walked into the resting place of the unknown soldier, she started squeezing my hand.  She says to me "Is that one of the men from the wall ?"  I replied no we dont know his name, so its important to remember those whose name we don't have.  She nodded and then stood silently until we left and went to the museum.




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