To expect one's colleagues to respect the 2 minute silence for Armistice Day

[suebfg]

...and not make a phone call in the middle of the office?

No, she didn't. I read the whole thread and it's a general comment not a specific response to the OP. There has been mention on the thread of it not being compulsory, and talk of respect and not everybody agrees with war and so on and so forth. I am just adding my pov to the thread, that is relevant to the entire conversation taken place so far.

Boohoo, in your opinion it is not disrespectful, in my opinion it is completely disrespectful. My opinion is every bit as valid as yours.

Sure, you're allowed to think it's 'disrespectful' for other people not to agree with your silly opinions. But the thing is, you're not entitled to do anything but whine. Putting your hand over someone's mouth or cutting off their phone call, for instance, would be outrageous behaviour. Observe your own rituals by all means, but get over the fact that other people don't want to.

I do that too, alt.

I remember my grandad, who died last year. He came home. He never talked about the horrors he had seen. He told me stories of ice cream in italy. He never told me of the young boy who was blown up next to him. I found that out from a book written about them.

I remember the man who is now the last one alive from their tank. How he now has dementia and can't remember what he had for breakfast but my god he remembers those years he was a terrified child who didn't know whether he was going to be alive in the next five minutes.

We should do nothing that insults any of these people. Not the ones who died, not the ones that came home.

Nothing hurt my grandad more than people disregarding those who died. He never wanted that boy who was blown to bits in front of him to EVER be forgotten.

would never have wanted

hecate not taking part in a silence is far from insulting people.

Yes, I am allowed to think exactly what I like of people and ther twatish opinions and I'll continue to do so, thanks. When did the op say anyone was going to do anything about it other than think it was disrespectful .

Lots of us work in situations where 2 minutes silence isn't possible. My sister works in a nursery, you can't make kids be quiet and if they are whacking eachother you have to intervene regardless of the time.

It sounds like it was a mistake. This is a lot of harumphing over nothing. If the colleague did it purposefully with the intention of disrupting your silence, you might have cause for complaint. Sounds like it was something forgotten. Get over it.

We will have to agree to disagree, Boo. I know that it hurt my grandad deeply when people sneered or felt these people didn't matter enough to spare 2 minutes in a symbolic act or even just didn't care, didn't think it mattered these days. He felt it was an insult to those who died. I will take how he felt about it, how the men he fought alongside felt about it, above the feelings of people who weren't there and didn't suffer it when deciding what I feel is the right, moral and respectful thing to do.

I know that sounds bitchy, like I am having a pop at you. Truly I am not. I am talking generally about the idea that not taking part is not insulting.

Altinkum - I live in Belgium and yesterday is a national day, where schools, shops etc are closed, and the silence is kept at 1100. It is particularly poignant here, as Belgium is after all the place where lots of the battleground was in WWI. It is because of that the silence is important. I find it impossible when driving through the area near Ypres not to think of the devastation of war; I think about the people turfed out of their homes; the destruction, and I also remember the Jews gassed in the Shoah, and those who kept it all going at home whilst the troops were away, and who continue to do so today.

For me, the silence isn't about just the fallen; it's about all of them, and it is also a time to be grateful that my family have always returned safely from deployments; and whilst my brother has been deployed to Afghanistan, my family have never had to be engaged in the kind of destruction that is evident from the names on the Menin Gate in Ypres, and also at the Thiepval memorial in France.

You are making an assumption that the silence is all about the fallen; it isn't. It is a time to reflect on what war means, and that will be different for each individual.

I was under the impression that the wreath goes in the monument to the unnamed soldier, representing all who have fallen, but I may be wrong.

Sorry scary, my post wasn't in reference to yours. I think those that came back should be remembered too.

YANBU and it would have been good if the management had instigated something.

FFS. It Is Two MINUTES. 2 minutes out of your year where you really ought to be able to be quiet. If not to sure respect for the people who want to observe it, but for all the people killed and injured fighting an horrific war. Bloody hell.

I do understand you point,but then surely people can think about whatever they want during the silences? Personally I do think about all those effected by war. Not just those who have served but their families and friends and the whole generation who lost childhoods due to war and were seperated from loved ones for so long.

"I know that it hurt my grandad deeply when people sneered or felt these people didn't matter enough to spare 2 minutes in a symbolic act or even just didn't care, didn't think it mattered these days. He felt it was an insult to those who died. "

firstly, sneering about it is completely different from not observing it. it is totally wrong to sneer at someone remembering their dead.

secondly, how he felt about what people do on remembrance day is not a representation of how the people doing or not doing are thinking. i respect everyone's right to remember their dead. i respect them for doing it. i respect them for not forgetting them. just because i dont join them, doesn't mean i dont respect it. i dont insult anyone. i remember my own dead. i do it on my own terms, in my own time and i dont impose my practises on anyone else. i wouldn't expect other people to join me in my personal remembrance. it is personal.

actually FAB, it's 2 minutes of your year. those 2 minutes are exactly the same as the 2 minutes before and the two minutes after in my year. you do what you want with your 2 minutes, i'll organise my own thanks.

I just hate this jingoism, "they died to protect our way of life" etc. No, they didn't. They died to protect territory and the power of the few, as nearly all servicemen and women do. I have great sorrow for this loss of life, huge sorrow.. but I believe that the horrors of the Holocaust in WW2 (which were not, in the end of the day, why there was a war) obscures the brutality of WW1 when men were sent like pawns to the most horrendous deaths by privileged officers who couldn't give one toss about them. There was NO respect shown to the men who died in the trenches by those who commanded them, and it IS right that we redress this by recognising this now and really feeling for what was lost. Communities and families torn asunder, women and children thrown into dire poverty, men who had barely lived just torn through or maimed and destroyed, physically and emotionally. That is what we should remember and what we should mourn, tragic loss of life for the sake of power. I am not "grateful" that people were sent to their slaughter or that their lives were destroyed, I think it is devastating. I want to remember THAT, not all this nonsense where it is becoming more and more triumphalist as time goes by.

Well, yes you are assuming Altinkum - I was a reception for Veterans in Brussels last week, and they were talking about the effects war had on their lives and families, and how they remembered not just those who had fallen, but others who had been affected by war.

It is really hard, especially given the footage of Christina Schmid from yesterday, to think of it just being about those who were killed. Coming from a military family myself, and being married to it as well, I am only too aware of the kids without Dads, the Mums who keep it all going, and vice versa. I think about my maiden great aunts; I think about my great uncles who came back; I think about my Grandpa in the Home Guard.

For me, the silence is about remembering all the aspects of a conflict and those affected by it on the anniversary of the guns falling silent; and Remembrance Day is the formal commemoration by the Nation of those who fell. If you look at those who march past the Cenotaph, there are people representing non military as well.

shake your head all you want FAB, your way isn't the only way. like i said, i remember my dead on my own terms, in my own time. i spend time throghout the year thinking about how lots of different wars have affected people and changed the world, for better or for worse. i haven't forgotten these people and their sacrifices. but i wont be dictated to in how I choose to remember them. it may suit you to remember them once a year when you are reminded to. it's not for me.