This year, many students from Williamsville East High School attended the Veterans Memorial at the Amberleigh independent living community. At the event, students first listened to a speech about the relationship between poetry and war. The presenter, like many of the veterans at the senior community, served in WW2. Many people came to see it, and the presentation was both moving and meaningful. Poems like “In Flanders Fields” share deeper meaning about not just the time period, but also the culture of war. In addition, students went to a lunch with these veterans and conversed about their experiences both during and before the wars they lived through. Many of these people served their country when they were only 16 or 17 years old. They served in the war and came out in their 20’s, ready to join the workforce. The times were different then; news came days after it happened, and sometimes people didn’t know the status of their loved ones for months at a time. These veterans lived through truly difficult times and shared with us living pieces of their history. We, the writers of the East Side Paper and entire Williamsville East student body, salute them.
