And our duty of remembrance grows every year As our veterans dwindle.
As Canadian soldier and doctor John McCrae wrote in his immortal poem, “In Flanders Fields” in 1915, speaking to all future generations for all the men and women who died for us in war:
“To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”
We do this not to glorify war, for war is an unspeakable horror, even when the cause is just.
We do it to remember that blood is the price that freedom demands. Lest we forget.