It's not like I have personal memories of WW1, but to date it is the second deadliest war ever waged. Unlike WW2 it wasn't a clear-cut struggle between fascist aggressors and their (relatively) innocent victims. Instead it was the result of a greed-inspired land grab magnified by centuries of chauvinism, bigotry, jealousy, and vengeful resentment.kjackson83 wrote:I don't know that I Vow to Thee would carry that kind of baggage with people nowadays, do you think? I've always thought of it as a Briton's hymn to their country.
What would be great would be R.P. writing some new stuff if Libera were asked far enough in advance to participate.
But, I would say Love and Mercy and Far Away...and it would be really cool if the whole thing--the whole opening ceremony--were to begin with the group singing their a cappella You Are the New Day.
I believe it was in 1999 that Charlotte Church put her version of that song on one of her albums. It was about that time that the US was bombing the begeezus out of Serbia in order to keep their army from driving the Kosovars out of Serbia. When I bought her album I was at first moved by the beauty of the song, then repelled by the mindless jingoism of that era which it represents. I would recommend that some day you read Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August. She does an excellent job of describing the behind the scenes events leading up to the war. Basically it appears that the Great War was just the thing that everyone feared would happen, yet also everyone eagerly anticipated. Each of the "great" nations of Europe thought that the war would be just the thing - to prove their superiority, to slake their lust for revenge, to prove the manhood of their youths. They got far more than they bargined for.
As a lot of you may already know I am very much into sports and athletics, play baseball, basketball, and football (American) myself. The games are broadcasted on NBC here in the US, delayed of course, and there is usually programming on all of the NBC networks here so I am basically glued to my TV when its on, especially during that breathtaking opening ceremony and Im sure I will be glued during the closing ceremonies as well.
