Let us remember them with a poppy!

by Reggie Fernando

After all the murder and the mayhem we have seen during the past ten months of this year, on Sunday, November 11 like in the past, we will pause to remember those women and men from the armed forces and the police who paid the price of freedom with their most precious possession - their lives - for you, me and our motherland.

The 'Remembrance Day' ceremony will take place at the Victoria Park where the President and other government officials will lay wreaths in honour of the dead before memory is eclipsed by history. It must also be remembered that it is fitting that all of us should pause not only to reflect on the courage and the sacrifice of these valiant men and women but also the triumphs they scored by winning back our lands the terrorists had annexed.

Remembrance Day started in Australia when Australians remember those who died in the war.

According to available records, in 1918 the armistice that ended World War I came into force, bringing to an end four years of hostilities that saw 61,919 Australians die at sea, in the air, and on foreign soil. Few Australian families were left untouched by the events of World War I, as most had lost a father, son, daughter, brother, sister or a friend. Since then the Australians, on November 11, at 11 a.m. pause to remember the sacrifice of those men and women who died or suffered in wars and conflicts and all those who have served in the fighting forces during the past 100 years.

Why the Poppy? Those of you who have travelled across France, particularly by car, bus or train may have seen the glorious fields of blood red poppies that began growing after the First World War.

Records in London also show that the connection between the poppy and battlefield deaths during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, is that fields that were barren before the battles, exploded with the bloodred flowers after fighting ended. During the tremendous bombardments of the First World War the chalk soils became rich in lime from the rubble, allowing 'popaver rhoeas' to thrive. When the war ended the lime was quickly absorbed, and the poppy began to disappear again. After John McCrae's poem 'In Flanders Fields' was published in 1915 the poppy became a popular symbol for soldiers who died in battle. Three years later an American, Moina Michael, was working in a New York City YMCA canteen when she started wearing a poppy in memory of the millions who died on the battlefield.

During a 1920 visit to the United States a French woman, Madame Guerin, learned of the custom. On her return to France she decided to use handmade poppies to raise money for the destitute children in war-torn areas of the country. In November, 1921, the first bunch of poppies was distributed in Canada.

Thanks to the millions around the world who wear flowers each November, the little red plant has never died. And in Sri Lanka neither has our memories for thousands of our countrymen who died in battle have faded away.

We too in Sri Lanka have suffered the loss of a father, son, daughter, relative or someone from a known family whose tales of selfless bravery and devotion they never lived to tell.

Next Sunday we will salute these people those dead and those still fighting, who never sought the limelight and who never received a second glance while walking in the street when off duty.

Each and every one of us owes a debt that can never be adequately expressed to these men and women whose strength and courage will some day save our freedom and our country. As much as we remember all of them, must celebrate the victories - great and small - that our armed forces and police, especially in recent months after years of tears, fears, blood and sacrifice the most horrible and savage of all conflicts we have witnessed in Sri Lanka.