the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

One of the programs I used to coordinate in my previous life was a sports competition between my hometown and a city in Canada. We would get together during the fall and winter to plan what we would do next year and how to fix what went wrong the previous year. Usually, some of the Canadians would come sporting a felt poppy. I found out they were celebrating Remembrance Day, when the (first) War to End All Wars ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.


Sting - Children's Crusade

Young men, soldiers, nineteen fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a children's crusade

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance
Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a children's crusade

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Midnight in Soho nineteen eighty four
Fixing in doorways, opium slaves
Poppies for young men, such bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a children's crusade

Why is it the more things change, the more they stay the same?
Why are those who(se leaders) do not learn from history doomed to repeat it?

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