Something Important Happens on 11/11/11 (Not Another Skyrim Thread)

Blunderboy

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Apr 26, 2011
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Sam Vimes said:
I live near a town in France called Le Quesnoy wich was freed by New Zelander during 1st World War, every year on the 11th of November a delagation of kiwis come and do the Haka to honor the the soldiers who fought this battle. I'll try my hardest to be there on that day.
That is awesome. Wish I could be there too.
 

GiglameshSoulEater

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Jun 30, 2010
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UK. I will be there to remember those who died for our country, and to honour them.
Got two poppies and spent a day selling them.

Peace to the fallen.
 
Dec 27, 2010
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Nope, we don't celebrate Remembrance Day here in Ireland, as we've never been in any major wars (other than the various rebellions, revolutions and civil wars that populate our fairly miserable history). However on the 24th of April, in celebration of the 1916 Easter Rising, I burn the Union Jack. Yes I do that, and no I don't want to kill all Brits.
 

rokkolpo

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Rockbottom87 said:
For the Netherlands, it's the 4th of may. I am always silent at that point.
Yep 4th of May.

And punch anyone that dares laugh in the meantime.
 

ckam

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Oct 8, 2008
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Sorry, I have never heard of this day before. But, I'll take a look at it in wikipedia.
 

LokiSuaveHP

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Feb 21, 2010
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We're too young. We're all too young. We can't put our minds into the mindset of people in Post-WW I Britain and France. I am an American, so I specifically have an issue with doing it. We live in a world where that idea of king and country and the innocence of youth just doesn't exist anymore. They did. It was a rude wake up call for humanity as a whole.

That world had been dying since the late 19th century, and was certainly killed with millions of others in World War I. It is difficult now to blame England and France for not wanting to go through that again, the slaughter of an entire generation. I feel that while Veteran's Day in the United States is great that we can remember all of those who fought and died, or fought and lived, Remembrance Day means something more to our neighbors across the pond.

It's a shame that we're all too young to remember when our naive world view was savagely ripped from us. It needed to happen, but not the way that it did. People have died for something, and people have died for what is seen as nothing, but all the while, they died so that others might live.

I will thank the Veterans who fought for my freedom, who fought for the freedom of Kurds and Kuwaitis, and I will pray for those who we lost or who were hurt in ways that I could never imagine.

On one hand, we have In Flanders Fields, and on the other hand, we have Dover Beach.

The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.


Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

edit : Interesting that Dover Beach is written more than half of a century before the first world war, but after the revolutions of the late 1840s. Amazing how prophetic it is.
 

garjian

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Mar 25, 2009
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Remind me how an often forced 2 minutes of silence honors their fight?

if you really cared, youd donate to a charity helping the wounded or youd be in the army yourself.
i, however, dont really care.
 

phantasmalWordsmith

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Oct 5, 2010
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I've got my poppy pinned to my coat. The 11th is important to me on account of a brother in law (who is kinda like the older brother I never had) in the army and a grand-dad who was in the korean war.
 

TheScottishFella

The Know-it all Detective
Nov 9, 2009
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11.11.11.11 Apparently the license plate (take or leave a few numbers) on Ferdinand's car and to answer your question I been wearing a poppy all week, and plan to do the silence. I am Scottish after all.
 

ryai458

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Oct 20, 2008
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As a member of the US Army I will also be taking part of Veterans Day here in the States.
 

Crazy_Dude

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rokkolpo said:
Rockbottom87 said:
For the Netherlands, it's the 4th of may. I am always silent at that point.
Yep 4th of May.

And punch anyone that dares laugh in the meantime.
Yup same here anyone who cannot be quiet for one minute to honor the dead deserves to be punched.
 

Blind Sight

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May 16, 2010
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Canadian here, and most insultingly I've had profs in university who completely ignore the 'silence for two minutes' rule. They'll just keep teaching with no recognition of what's going on. Bear in mind, there are profs that do it as well, but I'm just amazed that some feel the need to ignore it to get two more minutes of lecture in.
 

Vegosiux

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May 18, 2011
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Crazy_Dude said:
Yup same here anyone who cannot be quiet for one minute to honor the dead deserves to be punched.
Even if they spend that one minute on something meaningful, like I don't know, reading a story to their kid?

Yes I'm sure the fallen will turn in their graves for being disgraced so...
 

InGrindWeTrust

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May 19, 2010
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I'm 18, I live in Scotland and I regularly reflect on the sacrifices made for my right to live a free life. I have a scroll proudly displayed on my wall commemorating a member of my family who died in World War 2, and I will observe the silence on Friday, and more besides it. I'm glad to see so many people speaking out in favour of Remembrance, since the tradition seemed to be less popular among my generation these days. Unfortunately, the area I live in is riddled with a lot of "RIP Bin Laden" graffiti and the like, and I don't trust myself not to fight anyone I see burning poppies or disrespecting the war dead. Thank you for speaking up for our nation's (and others') fallen, and reaffirming my faith in stoic British compassion.
 

ShindoL Shill

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Jul 11, 2011
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my school is running announcements from my year with war-inspired music playing all week. today, we had the poems that some pupils wrote.
 

Dreamer of Theaters

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Jun 15, 2011
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While everybody will be taking a moment of silence, I'll have 10 minutes left of a Physics exam. I'll have to take the silence some other time.
 

SinorKirby

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May 1, 2009
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I have never heard of this holiday before. Not once. I'm betting it's probably because I'm American and such.

I guess I will kindly excuse myself from the thread and let you British people talk it out.
 

Blunderboy

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Apr 26, 2011
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InGrindWeTrust said:
I'm 18, I live in Scotland and I regularly reflect on the sacrifices made for my right to live a free life. I have a scroll proudly displayed on my wall commemorating a member of my family who died in World War 2, and I will observe the silence on Friday, and more besides it. I'm glad to see so many people speaking out in favour of Remembrance, since the tradition seemed to be less popular among my generation these days. Unfortunately, the area I live in is riddled with a lot of "RIP Bin Laden" graffiti and the like, and I don't trust myself not to fight anyone I see burning poppies or disrespecting the war dead. Thank you for speaking up for our nation's (and others') fallen, and reaffirming my faith in stoic British compassion.
Thank you for showing that your generation can show that same compassion.
I'm only 25, and I feel so far removed from most of the 'kids' today, it's ridiculous.