Veteran's Day - Lest We Forget - the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month (1918)
David Baxter
Independent Consultant | Senior Sustainability and Resilience (ESG) PPP Advisor to the International Sustainable Resilience Center | Steering Committee Member of the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals (WAPPP)
On every November the 11th - Veteran's Day - the world remembers the Armistice that ended World War I in 1918 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. We remember the sacrifices that our forebears have made to protect the world against tyranny.
I especially remember relatives who sacrificed much in past wars to defend a world that offer opportunities divorced from tyranny They include my father-in-law George Malkasian (US Navy - Second World War and Korea); my paternal grandfather Frank Baxter (South African Imperial Forces - Second World War - captured at Tobruk (North Africa) and prisoner of war in Italy and Germany); my maternal grandfather Johann Krauss (Royal Dutch Navy - Second World War - captured by the Japanese in Indonesia in 1941 and prisoner of war till 1945 in the jungles of Sumatra); and my great uncle Jor De Vries (captured in Indonesia in 1941 by the Japanese and held as a prisoner of war until 1945).
It it was not for their sacrifices and their comrades at arms, my maternal grandmother Catherina Krauss and my mother (Anna-Maria Krauss) and three of her brothers would not have been rescued in 1945 from their incarceration in a Japanese concentration camp at "Bajoe Biroe" in Indonesia. We also remember Jan-Lodewyk (my uncle) who did not survive the deprivations of the concentration camp and lies buried till this day in Indonesia.
Let's not forget - Lets heed the the great poem 'In Flanders Fields" by John McRae -
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
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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.
SEC reporting VP, GE, Corp Federal Govt relation (on leave)
3 年Thank you David, thank you Veterans around the World, you did sacrifice your lives to protect your people against their enemies, 1000s times thank you. But the biggest job remains, if the true enemy of your people is your leader. Would you do something? Would you redress this dangerous trend in the selection of our democratic industrialized countries leaders. If you see something say something (fraud, look alike, rerun, abuses of others...). Please answer this lifetime call to domestic peace.