This is an incredibly bittersweet portrayal of a British soldier from World War I, facing the dangers of trench warfare. It is just one vignette in a wonderful series on You Tube by the BBC about World War I called WW1 Uncut. Many people have posted pictures of loved ones in uniform today in celebration of Veterans Day, but how many people are there who are aware of the origin of this holiday? If you asked the average millennial or someone from my generation why we observe November 11, how many would be able to tell you? How many of you could tell someone (without looking it up) what No Mans Land was? Or where Flanders is, or Ypres, or Passchendaele or Brest-Litovsk or Gallipoli? Fifteen to seventeen million people (military and civilian) perished worldwide between June 28, 1914, and the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, not including those who died from the influenza epidemic (which was greatly exacerbated by the war and the ignorance of policies such as those espoused by the Wilson administration) or various civil wars and uprisings that resulted from WWI. We live in a world whose reality has been completely shaped by the First World War and the disastrous peace whose details were determined by four very self-important men who were largely ignorant of the realities of the cultures and countries and people of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, whom these four men treated as chess pieces on a board of their own making. But by the time the average American student graduates from high school, theyve spent relatively little time learning about this war, the people who fought it, and its aftermath. We say we love and honor our war veterans, but, if we dont understand the forces and events that led to them being veterans, if we avoid learning and teaching about these forces and events, then our reverence and patriotism are meaningless. https://youtube/watch?v=tCJTO3FoGrM
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:59:46 +0000
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