Library Display to Highlight Veterans Day
Submitted by Judy Doran
The American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Unit 328 of Clark is coming to Clark Library this November to highlight Veterans Day. The display will highlight the history and works of the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 328.
May is poppy month for the American Legion Auxiliary. In May the Auxiliary distributes poppies to all and receives donations for their work with veterans. All poppy monies collected as per the Auxiliary by-laws must be used to aid veterans and their families.
The ALA library exhibit will focus on the tradition of the poppy, Auxiliary history, and its works throughout its 102 years of service. The poppy was adopted by the American Legion Auxiliary in 1919 at the end of World War One as its symbol of the sacrifice soldiers make for their country. The poppy is a small red flower which seems to survive in the worst of circumstances. This Remembrance Day symbol was mentioned in a poem, “In Flanders Field”, written by a Canadian World War 1 brigade surgeon who saw red poppies on a field ravaged by battle.
Flanders Field, located in the northernmost region of the western front in Belgium, became the most devastated region of the entire battlefield. But soldiers noticed that Mother Nature never surrendered. Papaver Rhoeas, known as corn rose, red poppy, field poppy, and red weed, grew. The beautiful red poppy is classified as a weed and grows in the inhospitable, ravaged land. Indeed, it flourishes best in land that has been disturbed.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Alexander McCrae, a field surgeon with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces/ British Forces, was taking in casualties from the Second Battle of Ypres. In a letter to his mother, he wrote. “For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even… In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds.” His friend and former student, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed in action. McCrae conducted the burial service himself. He also noticed the red poppy and wrote a poem to remember his dead friend and those obstinate poppies. On December 8, 1915, his poem was published.
In 1919 the American Legion Auxiliary adopted the poppy to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Armistice to end the war. The poppy recalls so many images of war: friendship, death, suffering, struggle, disease, injury, victory, defeat, love, patriotism. Images only the soldier/veteran can truly understand. But as Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae states in his poem, it is up to all of us to remember.
This Veterans Day remember every soldier who performed his duty to his country. Remember those who died in service to their country. Remember those who continue to serve today. Wear the poppy. Learn its history. Honor the tradition. Support those who distribute poppies.
Come to the Clark Library to learn about the Clark American Legion Auxiliary Unit 328 and discover what it’s all about.
In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
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.
