Rememberance Sunday

[Arch]

Well that would certainly improve the quality of the Leicester Mercury which seems to be written by children these days.........

They dropped your column then?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I will be observing the two minutes on the 1th of the 11th. It is the least we can do.

 

[Maz]

Maybe a minute was deemed the 'ordinary' amount of silence (like you'd get at a football match if a great player died), so the WW and all the rest were deemed more important?

I've noticed of late that a minute's applause is becoming more popular at football grounds - more of a celebration of the player's life rather than being 'morbid' and remembering a player's death with silence.

Anything to shun away the thought of our own inevitable demise.

 

[John the Monkey]

We went to the village's rememberance service on Sunday. The road was closed to allow the parade to the war memorial, and throughout the service. There were probably between 150 and 200 people in attendance, I think.

 

[Hilldodger]

They dropped your column then?

They keep asking me for stuff but I haven't had time to write for them recently.

 

[jassy-x]

I've noticed of late that a minute's applause is becoming more popular at football grounds - more of a celebration of the player's life rather than being 'morbid' and remembering a player's death with silence.

Anything to shun away the thought of our own inevitable demise.

...looking at it from that point of view makes a lot of sense, but unforunately up here in Scotland the minute's applause has been born throught the embarassment caused by the 'Boo boys' during some of the silence's held in the past and it is now looked apon as a safer option at certain grounds....for example at Celic Park on Saturday the decision was made by the club to have 2 minutes applause instead of observing the traditional silence, probably as it was feared due to the clubs long standing connections with Ireland and associated feelings towards the Britsh army during the troubles, that a certain minority of idiots would cause an embarassment.....pretty sad really......

 

[Night Train]

I was thinking actually, how long will Rememberance Sunday go on? I know there are always more people dying each year, and I'm afraid that won't stop, but it won't be long before WW1 is a hundred years ago and eventually passes out of living memory.

Rememberance isn't just about those who died in WW1 and WW2, it is about all those who die in action anywhere at anytime and serves to remind us of the futility of warfare, the endless loss of life for... What? A religion? A political view? A few miles of land or sea? Revenge? My allies are bigger then your allies?

Yes, WW1 will pass out of living memory soon but we should still remember, I guess in the same way Christians remember events some 2000 years ago and hope to better themselves by not forgetting.

 

[Mr Pig]

I just wish that politicians nowadays would not be so eager to send our troops into unjust (unwinnable?) wars.

Nowadays? Haven't they always been like that?

 

[wafflycat]

As I am likely to be driving, I shan't be in a position to stop what I'm doing (most likely) but I will be observing the silence. I 'shook the tin' for the Poppy Appeal this year as I thought it was the least I could do, on the basis of what hassle is a few hours out of my life.My maternal grandad fought & died in WWI - he never saw his new daughter and she never saw her dad. Both my dad & MrW's dad fought in WWII, and some of the things my dad told me... and he kept the worst from me.

 

[louise]

I was stewarding a remeberance day service, my grans first husband was killed in Italy, his tank was shelled by the Japanese. I was really annoyed as two children in front of me started whispering during the silence and I had to tell them to keep quiet, they then danced and fidgeted around throughout, the two adults they were with did nothing they then repeatedly dropped their hymn books and messed around, at the finish I had to take the hymn book off them and one of the other stewards had to request them to behave.

 

[Over The Hill]

I agree that a period of silence is the least we can do. But I'm sick and tired of hearing all this guff about men "who gave their lives for us". Let's not forget that often, these people were frightened boys, conscripted into a horror they could not possibly have had any prior knowledge of.

Not sure where you are coming from-

Frightened - well I would be.
Boys or Men - they each were given the job of shooting men and being shot at. The bullets showed no favour.
Conscriped - makes it worse not better.
Not possibly have any prior knowlege of - well yes in that the horror would be and still is unimagenable to anyone who had not been there even with the benefit of the pictures we have nowadays that I think were largely not released at the time to keep morale up. but certainly no in that on the way to the front the fresh troops would see the broken troops returning from the front if they were lucky and the men digging the mass graves ready for them.

However it may be put you cannot blunt "gave their lives for us". For f*** sake they died. How they got there and the reason does not matter in any war. It just is men doing what they are ordered and dying in doing it in our name.

 

[John the Monkey]

Perhaps the political discussion could be done elsewhere?

 

[simoncc]

What I find surprising about the two minutes silence is that it seems to be getting more popular these days as the wars get further away. After years of the silence only being observed at ceremonies we now have it even in supermarkets and workplaces. It seems that every organisation is desperate to show how respectful it is.

 

[Hover Fly]

What bugs me about it is why is it TWO minutes silence? Who has made the decision that most people won't have thought of those that died in the war quite enough after one minute?

Do they have 2 minutes silence on the radio?

According to my grandfather, who was a train driver in France during the first world war, and attended the first Armistice day service in Barrow in Furness, originally the first minute was for remembering the fallen, the second minute was to give thanks for coming through alive.

 

[Headgardener]

I was stewarding a remeberance day service, my grans first husband was killed in Italy, his tank was shelled by the Japanese. I was really annoyed as two children in front of me started whispering during the silence and I had to tell them to keep quiet, they then danced and fidgeted around throughout, the two adults they were with did nothing they then repeatedly dropped their hymn books and messed around, at the finish I had to take the hymn book off them and one of the other stewards had to request them to behave.

Sorry Louise but I don't think the Japanese were in Italy.