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From: "Muriel M. Davidson" <>
Subject: [ONT] Re: Lest we forget
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:36:36 -0500
References: <6.0.0.14.0.20031111115511.01b9a660@pop.bloor.phub.net.cable.rogers.com>


Thanks, Vivien!! This is the first time this poem was posted,
but said in Hebrew yesterday by a very young girl as part
of the Remembrance Day service at Sunnybrook.
The whole place, and it is large, was wired for sound,
in parts of the hospital area, all available space in the
veteran's wing.

Muriel M. Davidson
----- Original Message -----

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields 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 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.



John McCrae (1872-1918), the author, was a Canadian physician who fought on
the Western Front in 1914, but was then transferred to the medical corps
and assigned to a hospital in France. He died of pneumonia while on active
duty in 1918.

Many of my ancestors/family fought in the defence of Canada and or Britain
in the past 200 years.

What do your children or grandchildren learn about any of the wars of the
20th century or any other period for that matter? There were more wars in
the 20th Century than in any other century in history and as the century
progressed the percentage of soldiers killed declined and the percentage of
civilians killed increased exponentially. Wars are now fought with the
object of inflicting as many civilian casualties ... women and children...
(i.e. collateral damage) and as much infrastructure damage as possible with
as few armed forces casualties as possible. Far more women and children are
killed in war than the number of soldiers fighting. And the killing of the
civilian population continues long after the cessation of war as many are
killed or maimed by land mines; land mines many countries continue to use
to this day.

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