Editor:
In the weeks leading up to Nov. 11, it is not surprising to see veterans and cadets stationed at the doors of supermarkets and shopping centres selling poppies.
Recently, I stopped by a young cadet, on duty in full uniform, and asked him if he knew the story of the poppy. His response was “no.”
I told him his education had failed him, and I proceeded to tell him about In Flanders Fields.
As I left, I suggested he Google the poem and also advise his superiors of his incomplete preparation for selling poppies.
“…we will remember them.”
Charles Grierson, Surrey
• • •
They leave family at home
These women and men
Traveling to all four corners of this blue planet
Weapons of steel and wood
Cloth to bandage wounds
Some to conquer, others to bring peace
Uniforms to rags they suffer
They do what they have been told
They suffer for doing it
And too many died doing it
We honour them with a tear
We cry for our loss
Flowers to say we still remember
We buy poppies to support the survivors
The survivors among us we salute
We listen to the past and what they have to say
They walk with us
Once a year we gather to remember these fallen souls
Let us honour the living
We pray that the number of fallen and wounded soldiers get fewer and fewer
Mike Stuyt, Surrey