Dear Editor:

A vivid reminder from a Canadian brigade doctor as we honor our veterans on this Veterans Day and Marine Corps Birthday, November 10, 2017. The second battle of Ypres is believed to be the first mass use of poison gas by the Germans on the Western Front. We should not naively believe that real evil does not still exist in this world and that words alone will stem the tide. We must remain vigilant and keep the promise with those who have sacrificed before us and give us the freedoms we have today.

Hubert Padgett

Newcastle

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae Second Battle of Ypres May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

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.