U.S. WWI memorial (or rather, lack there of)

[rm]

The U.S. has no national memorial to its soldiers who died in WWI. The last surviving U.S. veteran of that war is trying to do something about it. He's 107.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/09/world.war.one.memorial/index.html

Comments

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Have you heard the song 'and the band played Waltzing Matilda'? ( e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI ) I have no idea how well known it is in the US. Or of course you might have come across it in Oz.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I, I think like many Americans, know it because a version of it became popular in, I think, the 1970s when there was this whole Irish folk music thing here, and a major band of that scene recorded it.

It's a gut punch.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it always gets me. WWI is quite mind-boggling, I always think of this Wikipedia picture which attempts to explain it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:WWIchartX.svg

It's a gut punch.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

This poem is almost guaranteed to make any Canadian veteran(and not a few life long civilians) grow moist eyed:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields
We've printed this (and it's French translation on our money!)

Re: It's a gut punch.

[editrx.livejournal.com]

The VFW in our town sells lapel poppies on Remembrance Day every year -- surely other American VFWs much do it?

Re: It's a gut punch.

[laurab1.livejournal.com]

Some towns do sell them, yes. But poppies for Remembrance Sunday certainly aren't as common in the USA as they are in the Commmonwealth and Europe, I learned, when writing this story, and the one I've linked in the post:

http://laurab1.livejournal.com/282296.html