A' wede away

It’s been a week for sorrow. The ashes of USCP officer Brian D. Sicknick lay in honor in the Capitol rotunda he died to protect from insurrectionists last month. Following a service attended by his comrades and members of Congress, he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Sicknick suffered fatal injuries when the Trumpists beat him with a fire extinguisher on 6 January.

Also this week an Idaho National Guard Blackhawk crashed, killing three men, who were known to one of my colleagues. As their commanding officer said, the Guard’s aviation unit is a tight-knit community, and the loss has been very, very hard.

I’m feeling the need to lament, and you know who really does laments? The Scots. “Flowers of the Forest” is one that has always managed to start the tears flowing for me, so that’s what we’re having.

The folk song commemorates the Scottish defeat to the English at Flodden in 1513. As a bagpipe piece, it is so thoroughly connected to the loss of life that some pipers will only play it publicly at funerals or memorial services. I’ve seen it associated in particular with military funerals, which seems apt.

This instance is not technically a funeral, but close enough: it’s being played at the nightly Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium, which commemorates the British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in and around Flanders during the First World War. Except for the period of German occupation, Belgian and British officials have conducted the ceremony every night at 2000 since 1928.

Rest in peace, Officer Sicknick, CWO Jesse Anderson, CWO George Laubhan and CWO Matthew Peltzer.