Armistice Day: We Remember

The best thing about waking up just before three is that three in the morning in Los Angeles is eleven in the morning in London and so everyone (bar none) on Twitter experienced a moment of silence together at exactly eleven o'clock GMT, for the fallen. Big Ben bonged, as it does, and afterward the Dean of Westminster's words came through loud and clear, albeit in 140 character soundbites. People posted poems about war, quotes, pictures of poppies, photographs of people standing in silence at the Cenotaph. The British don't mess about with this stuff. There is absolutely no question about supporting our soldiers even if we think the wars are ridiculous. Everyone wears a poppy. Everyone stops what he's doing for two minutes to reflect on the lives that have been lost.

Listen to the Armistice Day silence here.

From The Telegraph:

The Very Rev Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, opened the service by recalling the moment exactly 91 years ago when the guns fell silent in Europe.

He said in his bidding: "The Great War was over. Lives, friendships, families, societies, nations had been shattered. Everything had changed.

"On this day two years later and at this hour, an unknown warrior, chosen at random to represent all those of these islands who had fought and died, accorded the highest honour of a state funeral, was buried here.

"His grave was to become the focus of our national remembrance and to have international significance.

"Now that the last of his comrades in arms has gone to his eternal rest, we are here once more to remember.

"We remember, with grief, the gas and the mud, the barbed wire, the bombardment, the terror, the telegram; and, with gratitude, the courage and sacrifice.

"Never again, they said; the war to end all wars. With resolution we remember."