Memorial Day, 2009

I hope that all of you are having a fun, wonderful and safe Memorial Day!

In all the revery, though, let us not forget the reason for this day and the sacrifices that those of previous generations made for our country. I know that many of you have friends, siblings, or other family members who serve or have served our country in the armed forces, and your thoughts remain with them today.

In all the vast canon of writings of and about war, there has been a poem that has always remained with me since I was a little boy and heard it read by Linus on a Charlie Brown special. “In Flanders Fields” was written by a Canadian physician who fought on the Western Front in 1914 in The Great War (what we now call World War I) and wrote what might be the single best-known poem from that war.

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.

- Lt. Col. John McCrae

Happy Memorial Day.