As we approach November 11, on that day, at 11am, here in Boorowa, nationally and worldwide, we will acknowledge the significant fact this is the 100th Anniversary of that hour when it was thought and hoped, that this would be the hour marking the end of the war to end all wars.
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History shows us this was not to be, but Remembrance Day provides us with time to reflect, time to give thanks and time to hope the world can find peace.
WITS
Wars are made up of battles that have etched themselves into military folklore.
Battles through history have been fought and won … and lost.
Etched into military history is the Charge of the Light Brigade.
On this day, October 25, in 1854 Lord Cardigan ordered the British Light Cavalry to attack Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War.
A well prepared and armed defence forced an almost immediate retreat, but not before over 100 British lives were lost.
The infamous Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem poignantly included the lines, “Into the Valley of Death Rode the six hundred.”
Cardigan received incorrect information before ordering the attack.
History is littered with such folly, such as Gallipoli in 1915 when the British General put the Diggers ashore on the wrong beach.
War is such a foolishness.
WITS
A doctor, who had been seeing an 80 year-old woman for most of her life, retired.
At her next check-up, the new young doctor told her to bring a list of her medicines that had been prescribed for her.
Looking through these, his eyes grew wide as he realized Grandma had a prescription for birth control pills.
“Mrs Smith, do you realise these are birth control pills?”
“Yes, they help me sleep at night.”
“Mrs Smith, I assure you, there is absolutely nothing in these that could possibly help you sleep!”
She reached out, patted the young doctor’s knee and said, “Yes, dear, I know that, but every morning I grind one up and mix it in the glass of orange juice that my 16 year-old granddaughter drinks. Believe me, it definitely helps me sleep at night!”
You gotta love Grandmas!
WITS
Last week saw the passing of that great environmentalist Ian Kiernan.
With his passion and determination to change people’s attitude to littering, Ian started the ‘Clean Up Australia’ campaign, a program that he took to the world creating ‘Clean Up he World’.
I was fortunate to meet Ian Kiernan at the opening of the Bald Hill Waste Management Facility.
Bald Hill is the site of a huge hole created from quarrying blue metal from an old volcanic plug.
Waste is dumped in a huge shed then pushed into an articulated vehicle to transfer down to the bottom of this very deep hole.
A truck load of rubbish from Harden was brought into the shed.
I was talking to Ian at the time the rubbish was being pushed into the articulated vehicle.
I asked him how much of the rubbish should be going down the hole.
His reply, “Very little.”
Ian Kiernan, very passionate about cleaning up Australia and recycling.
I would hate to think all his work was for nought.
We must all give thought to what is rubbish and what is re-usable and “Keep Australia Beautiful”.