A War To End All Wars

In Flanders Field

Flanders Field American Cemetery, Photo by Werner VC

A Tribute for U.S.A. Memorial Day 2013



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

Flanders Field as it appeared in 1919: 

No Man's Land, Flander's Field, France, 1919

What is the greatest tribute we can give to those who have died in war?  I propose that it is to resolve to end war.  Let us refuse to send young men and women into fear and chaos and carnage.   Let us resolve, instead, to find peaceable ways of resolving conflict.