Rememberance/Veteran's Day

[RACooper]

This Rememberance Day (or Veteran's Day) please take the time to remember those Brothers and Sisters that have suffered or died in the name of peace and freedom. Please take the time to think of those who have passed this last year, and pray for those who are struggling and suffering now. Finally take the time to say a simple "thanks" to a veteran today - it'll mean more than you can know.

Finally a poem from Col. John McRae - Zeta Psi, University of Toronto chapter - a poem recited today all across the British Commonwealth and elsewhere.

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.

This poem is of special significance for Greeks, as it was written by one Brother trying to memorialize another Brother: John McRae remembering his Zeta Psi Brother Alexis Helmer who was killed instantly by a direct hit from an 8 inch German shell. What body parts could be found were later gathered into sandbags and laid in an army blanket for burial that evening. Lieutenant Helmer was buried on 2 May. In the absence of the chaplain Major John McCrae conducted a simple service at the graveside, reciting from memory some passages from the Church of England's 'Order of Burial of the Dead'. A wooden cross marked the burial place; a grave that has since been lost. John McRae composed the poem sitting on the rearstep of an ambulance the next day while looking at Helmer's grave and the vivid red poppies that were springing up amongst the graves in the burial ground.
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