Two Party Opera by Brian Carroll for November 12, 2018

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

but it might rain, so I can’t go,

can’t get my hair wet, don’t you know…

Does anyone else notice that WWI Harry Truman is a dead ringer for Harry Potter?

!00 years since the War to end all Wars, 70 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So are we now sliding back to the world of 110 years ago? Have we learned nothing but how to destroy faster and more effectively?

Learning’s one thing. Doing is another.

I think that we have forgotten the horrors that soldiers go through in war. Here in the USA we glorify our service men and women to the point of idol worship. Consider the controversy around kneeling during the National Anthem at football games. Somehow the protest about civil rights becomes a gross insult to America’s warriors.

We even call them warriors rather than the more ordinary – soldier.

My father was in Korea. My grandfather fought in the Battle of Bataan and spent the rest of the war in a Japanese POW camp. My mom’s brother, cousins and uncles were English and fought in the second world war – some also in the Great War. They never talked about the glory of war. In fact, they never really talked about it at all. To them it was a dirty business that had to be done and the point of their service was that their children wouldn’t have to go to war again. They actively discouraged us from joining the military. None of my cousins or their children have.

I take Veteran’s Day as a day to reflect on the horror that war is for it’s participants and honoring their sacrifice means making sure we have no more wars. Robert E. Lee once said “It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it”, I wonder if we’ve forgotten that.

Amazing to see that the current leaders of two of the major combatant nations of a century ago are now leaders in the pro-unity movement that some other leader despises.

My grandfather was “over there”. Thanks for fighting against evil, Grandfather. Rest in Peace.

A better alternative to ‘In Flander’s Field.’ The last lines of that poem always felt like an invitation to jump into the grave with the lost. This poem by Siegfried Sassoon, ‘Aftermath’, says it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZxYjogqB2E

In WW II, virtually everyone had to make sacrifices. If not in actual combat, in the military in support roles with the ever present possibility of ‘seeing some action’. Civilians sacrificed their loved ones, worked in factories, complied with rationing, grew victory gardens, saved aluminum and other stuff.

When we invaded Afghanistan and then Iraq, there were NO sacrifices beyond those deployed and their families. In fact some powerful people made tons of money off it.

So now, we ‘thank’ the veterans. That’s what our war effort consists of these days.

.

And it’s one two three, what are we fightin’ for?

The least the current POTUS could have done was honor those who died. Those who bravely fought so the bone spur brat could hide like a coward behind his deferments. No one in his family has ever cared enough to fight for anyone’s rights.

Moina Michael (1869-1944), that’s a lovely poem, but unfortunately, we clearly have learned no lesson.

Note that Donald John Trump Trump didn’t WANT to go to France, he wanted his OWN parade in HIS own ‘backyard’ , he didn’t want to be just one of dozens of OTHER world leaders in a French drizzle – and he was probably apprised of Macron’s speech decrying “Nationalism” as inherently evil and was the the root cause of BOTH World War I AND World War II. So, since he wasn’t the absolute center of attention, he’s pouting – throwing tantrums – refusing to do what he’s supposed to do, and pouting – like the “mental child” that he is.

Incidentally, there were OTHER venues he could have attended to honor our dead American Heros if his Official Helicopter couldn’t get off the ground.

And, by the way, Trump’s expansion of supposed V.A. benefits was only barely thought out; leading to thousands losing their benefits with veterans being kicked out of schools, rentals and having to take loans out to put food on the table!

Gods help the people Donnie supposedly DOESN’T like!

Be sure to watch the “Family of Blood” episode of “Doctor Who.” It is part 2 of a two parter. Part one is “Human Nature.” It end with a tribute to WWI veterans.

And through this whole weekend, I have been going back to Britten’s War Requiem in my thoughts.

One of the requirement’s for the Office Of President should be completion of Honorable Military service.

Our president likes those who DIDN’T die in Flanders fields.

I hear that Trump was in his hotel room at the time, watching TV. Queen Elizabeth (at 93) made it to all the ceremonies. But Trump has been seen playing golf in the rain. Was he afraid his hair would get mussed up, since he couldn’t wear a golf hat?