Are you turning your lights off at 10pm?

Today is a pretty historical day all over. Surely for those of you who might not wish to remember the 100 years since we declared war on Germany you could instead chose to remember the program Highway to Heaven which aired for the last time this day on 1989? Or, who could not find the passion to remember the poor seagull whom New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield killed during warm up for a game in 1983? Some people are heartless bastards.

I’ll be lighting a candle tonight.

I probably won’t be turning off my lights for the whole hour but I will pause for a moment to think about what it means to me and the sacrifices people made.

To me thats the whole point of it; getting people to stop and think for a moment, understand and remember the significance of what happened. If you choose to do that a different way then I have no problem. But if you’re just going to sit counting the minutes as token gesture then I’d don’t see the point.

you could instead chose to remember the program Highway to Heaven which aired for the last time this day on 1989?

This isn’t on TV anymore?

No,
But I will be having a quiet moment of reflection on my own just as I do on November 11 every year.

On a similar vein
Am I the only 1 who thinks it is highly hypocritical of the worlds leaders to make a big thing of remembering those who gave their lives in the war to end all wars while still sending more men to fight and die in wars all round the world ?

You cant go through any village without seeing a list of names. In the Irish club in Huddersfield I noted 4 and 5 family surnames. I dont want my sons generation etc to go through anything similar.

Such acts keeps remeberance alive and just maybe we dont repeat. Although none of it affected me. I remember my Great Grandfather and loss in our family.

The basic test I apply is ‘is the world a better place for it afterwards’ and I can’t see it passing that one. Be much better if they asked you to donate £1 to charity, that would make actually make a difference.

rene59 – Member
No, I will give it a miss. Do you always mark the anniversary of the start of the war(s)?

No, mainly because this is the first time that the start of the First World War occurred exactly one hundred years ago.
A number that I would have thought the significance of might actually mean something.
Perhaps it’s just me, then.
And yes, I’ll put a light in the window.

[/url] image[/url] by CountZero1[/url], on Flickr[/img]
[/url] image[/url] by CountZero1[/url], on Flickr[/img]

This is my family grave, in Slaughterford churchyard. The pocketknife is in my pocket as I write this.
I suppose this is just tokenism, though.

If you get a few mins, eg from 10-11pm, then you might like to watch some of the Great War Diaries (interviews) on iPlayer. Humbling beyond imagination.

Look out of your (roughly south-facing) window at 22:26 and you might catch the ISS passing overhead

I hope they’re turning their lights off.

Had that Harry down here today to open another mawkish example of this country doing the wrong thing, celebrating an event caused by it’s slavish obsequeince to the very Monarchy that caused the conflagration, so no i won’t be joining you thanks just the same.
My Grandad did his bit, got kicked in the face by a horse struggling with a Gun carriage and disfigured his entire life. He didn’t want to go, but it was considered un patriotic and folk who didn’t had their lives made unbearable by the masses of servants of a class system that imprisoned the bourgeois.
Nothing to celebrate, nothing heroic about that War and today people are still suffering it’s consequence, sometimes the manipulation of events makes me sick to the stomach.

Yes got the tea light lanterns ready.

Cougar – Moderator
I hope they’re turning their lights off.

If you don’t want to do it or don’t agree with it, then don’t do it.
No need to make sarcastic comments about it.
It comes across (to me at least) that you are belittling what other people are doing by making light (pun not intended) of it and that ‘your way’ is somehow superior….

Nahh … you lot with scientific minds … no wonder the death is suffering.

If you really want to remember them do some good deeds and dedicate the good deeds (merits) you have done (in your heart by thinking of them or mind whatever) to the departed. You don’t have to wait for today to do this but rather everyday of your life.

Try it.

🙄

It comes across (to me at least) that you are belittling what other people are doing

I didn’t mean to belittle anything, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. I was aiming for amusing rather than sarcastic. YMMV.

I have many failings, but a superiority complex really isn’t one of them. Quite the opposite generally. My only point originally was that it’s important to do things for the right reasons rather than as a box-ticking exercise.

Cougar – Moderator

It comes across (to me at least) that you are belittling what other people are doing

I didn’t mean to belittle anything, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. I was aiming for amusing rather than sarcastic. YMMV.

I have many failings, but a superiority complex really isn’t one of them. Quite the opposite generally. My only point originally was that it’s important to do things for the right reasons rather than as a box-ticking exercise.

No need to beat yourself up … nobody is perfect and we are all zombie maggots. 😯

I’ve just stole the last candle we have in the house from my daughters room. Its one of those nice smelly ones from ikea, she wasn’t happy, I explained why, afterwards she was adamant that said candle was lit but I wasn’t to burn the blinds in the window. I like that she cared and felt the sentiment behind it. That’ll do me!

S’alright, Cougar.

I understand the sentiment about a box ticking exercise, but to me this kind of thing is a show of solidarity people can use to show that they are remembering and that they are grateful for the sacrifice of others…..

Just a shame that there is a requirement to remember, really. Currently reading ‘Hitler’s War on Russia’ and the number of deaths on all side is tragic.

Is Ikea still open to buy some tea lights?

Best take a torch

tea light app?

You do what you want. I may or may not be turning out the lights, I’ve not decided yet. But if I do, it’ll be to think long and hard about our history, rather than because the media have decided that if we do some token gesture we can absolve ourselves of guilt and responsibility until the next anniversary
Oh dear, someone seems to be wide of the mark…

I didn’t mean to belittle anything, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. I was aiming for amusing rather than sarcastic. YMMV.

I have many failings, but a superiority complex really isn’t one of them. Quite the opposite generally. My only point originally was that it’s important to do things for the right reasons rather than as a box-ticking exercise.

Your response is insensitive, crass and an example of why you and Drac have had your time, moderating this forum. Of course, its not my call, Chips and Mark get that decision and they appear too lazy to recruit new, fresh, unbiased recruits to the moderator ranks of the STW forum.

But of course, you, like others appear to have over looked the point. Yes, war was declared on this day, one hundred years ago. However, on this day, one hundred years ago, our forefathers plunged headlong into what was at the time, quite possibly man’s best effort at creating the hell on this here earth, which was to become WW1.

And so, one hundred years later, if for no other reason, I should never forget their sacrifice, indeed, I for one, deeply appreciate it, while also lamenting it.

Oh dear, someone seems to be wide of the mark…

To be straight, I also thought it was a bit strong and pretty much belittling anyone else’s motives for joining in but then it was explained that it was not intended to be so. Solo, sometimes folk write stuff here that gets taken the wrong way. Most times they’re not even big and ugly enough to take it back whereas in this case, at least an apology has been offered to anyone who misunderstood. These threads are bitchy enough without turning it into your own anti-mod polemic couched within a post extolling your own motives for remembrance.

Leave it out for once.

Hammer?????

Lights off, candle lit. We must never forget….

Like you?

Lights off, candle lit. We must never forget….

Checking the news, I think we forget all too easily.

Like you?

Whilst I’m quietly snarling at Solo’s post, might I suggest we leave that particular discussion for a different thread.

8.5 million solders died. 8.5 million.

Think about that number rather than your petty arguments.

Yes, as a mark of respect.

Whilst I’m quietly snarling at Solo’s post, might I suggest we leave that particular discussion for a different thread.
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I like the idea of turning out the lights. My lights are out. It doesn’t matter how you remember/honour the sacfrices of millions, as long as we don’t forget them.

No, mainly because this is the first time that the start of the First World War occurred exactly one hundred years ago.
A number that I would have thought the significance of might actually mean something.
Perhaps it’s just me, then.
And yes, I’ll put a light in the window.

I don’t get it. What is the most significant event then? The start of the war or that a hundred years have passed since?

If the former then why not mark it every year? If the latter then why of all the things to mark a hundred years passing of do you choose the start of the war?

Celebrate the anniversary of the end (and never forget)?

8.5 million solders died. 8.5 million.

Think about that number rather than your petty arguments.

What about the others, the 7 million civilians?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

And then we had the ‘flu’, another 50-100 million…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Love the way people on here try to make themselves look super intelligent by putting the opposite view across. Ha ha

Its about remembering those that died on all sides. Not whether it as wrong or right.
Its important we dont forget it reminds us of the horror.

Stop using it to big yourself up with your abstract self important twaddle

That would be during the next parliament.

I’ve lit a candle as a mark if respect lights are off but watching ww1 program on the telly, couldn’t give a toss if I get flamed for not sitting in the dark, my grandad served in WW1 and got wounded 7 times and he died in 1974. He had to move to the Uk to get a job as he was Irish fighting for the British.

Just a bit of a gap in my knowledge, did the UK really declare war at 10pm?

The reality is its a very sobering thought that it was the start of so many men being lost, but I do find turning the lights out and lighting a candle a bit odd. But if it helps make it a more poignant moment for some then fair enough I guess.

What does it for me was the very old Grandad who used to visit his Grandchildren next door to where I lived as a kid (this going back more than 30 years) he was in a tank in the 1st World War, and of course tanks are fun for 10 year old boys.

We knew he was in a tank, we knew he was in battles, but one days I asked him what he did, and did he kill many Germans, his face changed, and he just said it was not something that any young boy should have to do or see again.

At aged 10 ish I didnt take it onboard. Now as an adult I never forgot his eyes and face in that one moment, the look of sadness/terror/pain he could not share.

Quite frankly lighting a tea light is taking the pee a bit.

11pm, midnight central european time