This week is brings us the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month of the 11th year. In terms of Remembrance Days you don't get a more incredible one.
To me Remembrance Day is just that. A time for reflection. It is not a political day of any kind it is a day when we recognise the ultimate sacrifice given by so many, on all sides of a conflict. To go to war is horrific, to not come home to loved ones is worse.
Sure politicians decide upon the wars but soldiers merely act upon their orders. I don't know if I could have coped in going over the top at Ypres, or The Somme. Or how I would have coped when faced with the scene at places such as Buchenwald,Treblinka or Auschwitz. I can only imagine what it must be like right now for troops in Afghanistan as they settle in for another bleak winter. What I do know though is that if we forget what these brave men, women and animals do and have done then we cheapen their sacrifice.
I have listened to many a debate about democracy and political system and believe strongly that the reason we can have this debate in the comfort of our living rooms, pubs or cafes is because somewhere someone stood up and said I will guard you at night.
I do not agree with many of the radical views expressed about our world today on all sides yet I will say this:
I will fight with everything that I have, to my dying breath, to defend those who would speak their views however abhorrent to me they may be, for that is what true democracy is. A right to freedom of speech and thought.A right to have your voice heard!
And so I wear my poppy with pride and humbleness to honour all those who have fallen to defend what they believe in. I will remember them with pride, I will as the sun goes down think of those who have risen to a place beyond us in the name of us and I will say
I SHALL NOT FORGET
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