Postby Technomancer » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:28 am
Two of my great-uncles served in the first world war, and my grandfather and one of my other great uncle Chuck served in the second war. One of Chuck's cousins also served in that war, somewhere in Burma. I had another great uncle who besides fighting in WWI, also served in the British Indian army on the Khyber pass near the Afghan border. My two grandmothers were also spotters for the Canadian civil defence forces during the war.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Lt. John McCrae
1st Canadian Field Artillery
near Ypres, Belgium 1915.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov