Tag: Remembrance Day

Peace, Love and Understanding

Published on by J. Kelland Perry22 Comments

Remembrance Day is observed on November 11th in Canada.

I’d like to highlight a song that means something to me and conveys my abiding wish for peaceful, nonviolent alternatives to the costs and devastation of war and strife worldwide.

That said, I mean no disrespect to the memories of all the brave soldiers who fought, stood on guard, and died for us. I honour them just as you do.

UPDATE 2020: I love this new social-distanced version for the times we live in. I hope you have a listen.

As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding?

And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding?

So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.

Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding?

~ Nick Lowe

Sunday Snaps: Monument in Bronze

Published on by J. Kelland Perry27 Comments

In July, I took these photos of a new bronze memorial erected last year in Victoria Park, St. John’s. I’m sharing them in honour of Remembrance Day tomorrow.

Inspired by the memory of his own grandfather, artist Morgan MacDonald named it One Hundred Portraits of the Great War. 

“Cast from the faces of 100 descendants of Newfoundland Regiment soldiers who fought in the First World War, the installation is a kind of “living memory” featuring the families who have carried pain, loss, and pride throughout the last century. After casting each volunteer, MacDonald arranged the bronze effigies, then welded the casts to an oval frame reminiscent of antique war portraits.” – CBC News, NL

Volunteers had to stay still and breathe through straws while the casting hardened.

MacDonald said, “I think it’s incredibly special to have a placeholder and a location, so the families can come and reflect on that memory.”

Evocative? I believe so, particularly when viewed in person. Haunting? Definitely.
So is war.

Further reading:
100 faces, 100 years: Bronze memorial to fallen soldiers unveiled
Putting a face on history

If There’s A God In Heaven (What’s He Waiting For?)

Published on by J. Kelland Perry17 Comments

Torn from their families
Mothers go hungry
To feed their children
But children go hungry

There’s so many big men
They’re out making millions
When poverty’s profits
Just blame the children

If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for?
If he can’t hear the children
Then he must see the war

But it seems to me
That he leads his lambs
To the slaughter house
And not the promised land

Dying for causes
They don’t understand
We’ve been taking their futures
Right out of their hands

They need the handouts
To hold back the tears
There’s so many crying
But so few that hear

If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for?
If he can’t hear the children
Then he must see the war

But it seems to me
That he leads his lambs
To the slaughter house
And not the promised land

If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for?
If he can’t hear the children
Then he must see the war

But it seems to me
That he leads his lambs
To the slaughter house
And not the promised land

If there’s a God in heaven
Well, what’s he waiting for?
If there’s a God in heaven
What’s he waiting for?

Repeat

 

Written by Elton John, Bernie Taupin, and Davey Johnstone