"In Flanders' Fields"

Today, November 11th, is Armistice Day in the UK and Veteran's Day in the United States. Both celebrate the remembrance of the men and women who have protected the right to democracy and freedom for our countries, and in the process lost their lives or sustained life altering injuries.

My first encounter with the differences on this day between the US and the UK came on the way to school today as I stopped at the petrol station. I noticed a sign stating that if you were at the station between 10:55 and 11:05, dispensing petrol from the pump, the dispensation would gradually slow until a complete cessation would be experienced at 11 a.m., for a minute of silence. I thought this was quite good; little did I know that the full poignancy of the day was yet to be experienced during a school wide assembly at Fairfield.

The Headmaster, Chris Barker, spoke to the staff and students beginning at 10:50 which culminated in a moment of silence precisely at 11 a.m., coinciding with the end of his talk. I thought I would paraphrase his talk, but as it progressed it became apparent that paraphrasing would not do it justice, so I asked him if I could post the full entirety of what he said on my blog and he kindly agreed.

I will say that this assembly was one of the most profound emotional moments - a positive one - since I have arrived in the UK, and it is quite worth remembering and making note of it. As I looked around I was impressed with the solemnity of the silence observed by the students, from ages to 11 to 16, they were silent and thoughtful. There were some staff with tears in their eyes as they perhaps remembered loved ones affected by any of the conflicts. I was struck by the fact that the entire nation was at a standstill and it was profound.

Often times, in the US, I think we forget as Americans the full force of what sacrifice was made, and continues to be made, by the men and women of our Armed Forces because we have never had a major conflict fought on our own soil. We have the entire day off, but how many people, especially our young people, have an understanding of why they don't attend school on this day?

Upon returning to the classroom I shared my impressions of the assembly with my Year 11 students and conversation ensued about friends, relatives, loved ones off to war at the moment or grandfathers and great-grandfathers who had been involved in WWI & WWII; I was treated to some good stories of these men's lives and their families.

What follows is the text of Mr. Barker's talk during the moment of silence held today at Fairfield High School. I sincerely thank him for allowing me the privilege of publishing it on my blog.

At 11:00 a.m. on 11th November, the eleventh month of the year, the guns ceased firing all over Europe in 1918. Since then we have remembered those who gave their lives so that we can be free; so that we can live our lives as we choose. The last soldiers from that war have now died and there is no-one left who remembers taking part in that terrible slaughter. In 1915 John McCrea wrote a poem because he noticed poppies growing in the disturbed earth which were the graves of his fellow soldiers who had been killed.

"In Flanders' field the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw the sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders' fields.

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.

Hence the poppy is the symbol of remembrance and we wear it with pride and all the money raised is spent by The British Legion on looking after injured and sick soldiers.

The men and women who fought in the Second World War are now old too.

There are new conflicts and our soldiers with thousands of American ones and troops from NATO countries are fighting in Afghanistan. In all other wars and conflicts those who have been killed have been buried where they fell but this is the first conflict from which our dead are being brought home. They all arrive back in Wooten Bassett, in Wiltshire. Many are asking should we be in Afghanistan and why are we there? Whatever you may feel, one thing is certain; our politicians believe that the world is a safer place because we are there. Underground trains and buses have been blown up in London, trains have exploded in Madrid, passenger planes have been hijacked and crashed into skyscrapers in New York and countless other atrocities have been carried out around the world by young men trained in camps in Afghanistan. Those camps do not exist at the moment.

On Armistice Sunday, I watched the ceremony from the Cenotaph and at one point there was a list of those, with their ages, who have died in Afghanistan. Most of the soldiers are in their 20's and 30's, but I was struck by three consecutive names who were aged 18, barely two years older than many of you in this room. Whilst thousands of 18 year olds are still at school, some are dying for us in desolate, foreign places.

As Big Ben prepares to strike eleven, without talking,will you stand .... and we will join the rest of the nation in the work-place, on the pavement, in cars pulled over to the side of the road in silence to remember:

"They shall not grow 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."

I pray to God that none of you are involved in such an awful thing as war.