From the Archives: 'So It Goes ... '

At just about this time last year, I posted the following. Watching the video again just now, I felt it was worthy of a repeat performance:

In honor of both Veterans' Day (once known as Armistice Day) and Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), whose birthday it is, his version of how a war can end in peace, as read by the author from Chapter 4 of his 1969 classic, Slaughterhouse Five, or A Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death, and put to images by one LloydRizia for his English class. I hope he got an A (video): http://vimeo.com/60575926

   I mentioned in that post that Veterans' Day was originally Armistice Day. It was created to mark the armistice, or truce, that ended World War I, aka the Great War and the war to end war, even though the actual treaty, the Treaty of Versailles, wasn't signed until June 1919. Seven years after that, Congress decided that the “recurring anniversary of [November 11, 1918] should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations”: http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-veterans-day
   In the UK and Canada, the symbol of the day is a red poppy, after a poem written by Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae (1872-1918) in 1915, apparently on the
death of his friend Lieutenant Alexis Helmer (1892-1915) in the Second Battle of Ypres: http://www.greatwar.co.uk/article/remembrance-poppy.htm
   Here's the poem:

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.