WWII Cemmemoration

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Today we went into London to see the World War II Cemmemoration that was being held on the Mall and at Buckingham Palace. We first went over to the Tower London and Tower Bridge just to see those (since we hadn't yet) before getting to Buckingham Palace around 2:30. The Queen went down the Mall accompanied by several special gaurdsmen on horseback to where they held the ceremonies for an hour, which we only saw parts of on a big screen. They then had a parade of the colors of all the military groups that fought or supported the soldiers during the war, along with the Queen again and several military bands. Then everyone gathered in front of the Palace, in front of the gates, filling up the entire square after emptying out of the sidewalks, while the Queen and the royal family came out on the balcony to great the cheering crowds. Several groups of WWII planes flew over, American, British, and French, when at the very end a bomber dropped thousands of paper poppy flower petals on the crowd; the entire flyover was very very awesome. Although it struck me as being slightly amazing at how much pride the British people had for their veterans, I still wasn't that surprised, because it seems to me that the even the culmination of a weeks worth of celebrations marking the anniversaries of the allied victories in Europe and Japan, even the hour long cermonial tribute to those who fell in battle, and even the plane flyover can not possibly show how thankful the allied nations and their citizens should feel for what an enormous victory it was for the world for that war to end, not enough even if the celebrations occur every 5 or 10 years, or even every year. I thought the whole thing was amazing, and I'm very glad I went.

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Comments

[Halcomb]

Yes. It would be quite amazing if people felt that way here too. When you run into people in this country that are very grateful, they most often, especially in the NW, get called war mongers. Anything to do w/ the military..war monger. Wow I guess that's what I am then. Did the old Red Arrows fly w/ the WWII planes? Those guys can do so much more than the Blue Angels!

[cate]

In the US if you attend anything like that you are labeled a sentimental patriotic fool. I think the brits have it right, there is nothing wrong with having pride in your country and the awesome things it accomplishes, military or not.