When ever I think of November 11, I immediately think of this poem, Aftermath. Here Jeremy Irons reads Siegfried Sassoon’s classic anti-war poem, which was written in 1919 to express his horror of the first world war, in which he served: “Have you forgotten yet?… Look up, and swear by the slain of the war that you’ll never forget!
For years I tried to get this brief film segment shown during the high school “Veterans” Day assembly of the school in which I taught for 27 years to no avail. Students should have been reminded that November 11 was originally called Armistice Day, to signify and commemorate what happened on that special day to end hostilities of the greatest and most calamitous war in world history (up to that point). Now with Veterans Day, ostentatious and belligerent celebrations of militarism and martial glory are performed for the deferential inhabitants of the United States of Amnesia.
2:29 am on November 11, 2021
