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1100hrs - the silence


Gooseman

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This morning at 1100hrs, I stood with my head bowed in a simple act of remembrance to the men and women who gave their lives to defend the rights that we enjoy. As a former soldier I feel it is my duty to remember these brave souls, and to teach my children about their sacrifice.

Today I felt despair that my colleagues could not offer up the same small token. I don’t condemn people for their beliefs but I do condemn those that cannot spare two minutes once a year to honour the dead who fought for our liberties.

Rangers have always marked remembrance with solemnity and honour and the club should be recognised for their good work and excellent service to our armed forces, instead of being demonised and accused of point scoring. It should be the duty of every football club in the UK to mark this day with a two minutes silence and it should be their privilege to honour our serving men and women.

Our club stands head and shoulders above the our clubs in this country because of our support for our armed forces and dedicated observance of the 2 minute silence, even the parents of the late Lee Rigby on national television commented on the support we gave them. Sometimes I feel so ashamed of some of the people of this country, the people that sing songs glorifying Irish rebels and the killing of British soldiers and the authorities that don’t bring these people to task, that I question the reasons why I signed up.

Perhaps I let the emotion of the day get to me too much.

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I myself stood publicly at The HMFC war memorial at Haymarket and, there was a very healthy Crowd.

It was good to go along and remember those who fought, and died in past and present conflicts.

However there seems to be within our communities an element that is more than willing to ignore our History, and are quite quick to not pay any kind of dignified Respect to those who died so that we may live.

I am an ex serving member also, and if it is up to us to continue this the we must make people aware of just how ignorant ,and ugly their actions of not honouring our dead are.

We must challenge those who treat our Heroes with contempt.

Lest we Forget.

Tell them about those who died and tell them why.

Educate them.

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I myself stood publicly at The HMFC war memorial at Haymarket and, there was a very healthy Crowd.

It was good to go along and remember those who fought, and died in past and present conflicts.

However there seems to be within our communities an element that is more than willing to ignore our History, and are quite quick to not pay any kind of dignified Respect to those who died so that we may live.

I am an ex serving member also, and if it is up to us to continue this the we must make people aware of just how ignorant ,and ugly their actions of not honouring our dead are.

We must challenge those who treat our Heroes with contempt.

Lest we Forget.

Tell them about those who died and tell them why.

Educate them.

My son sat with me and watched the festival of remeberance on saturday night, asking all the usual questions about what happened, why did it happen etc. On suday my wife and i took our kids to the cemetry, my late father in law served in the Navy for 18 years and was at the Falklands. Every year we visit his grave and then we put some flowers down at the cenotaph in paisley, we do this as my younger kids would interupt the laying of the wreaths and the silence. the two youngest are 20 moths and 18 weeks, they dont understand whats going on.

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I find it incredible that some won't give two mins of their time once a year to just stop. Surely that's not too much to ask?

I'm not asking you to put your hand in your pocket and fork out hard earned cash. I'm not asking you to pledge allegiance to the flag, the monarch, the country or the government. I'm only asking you to stop.

If truth be told I don't care what you think about during those two minutes. Shopping, tea tonight, what's on tv ~ I don't care. Ideally I'd like you to think of those things and then think of those who gave their lives so that you CAN think about those things as you have the freedom that some gave their lives for. And some still do.

I think its pertinent to mention that the 2 mins silence, altho borne from the Great War, encompasses all those who have fallen. I stood in honour at Camp Bastion the year before last and listened to friends and colleagues pay tribute to a boy who succumbed to an improvised device. Not much older than my child. An avid footballer and a lad with everything in front of him. It was that moment I reflected on today.

Two minutes of silence. That's really not too much to ask.... is it?

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I also stood for two minutes to remember our fallen ,I was working in Edinburgh working in nhs offices when I was told that the entire building would be honouring our soldiers,and there where all sorts of religions there and different backgrounds,so it was nice that everybody could pay there respects.

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I prayed for our fallen yesterday when Her Majesty laid the reef at Whitehall. I again prayed during every English football match yesterday, I think that was 3 times and again today at 11:00 a.m.

Considering these men and women died to give me the freedom I enjoy today it's the very least I can do.

Lest we forget

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