Today we celebrate Veterans Day in the US. Other parts of the world celebrate a similar holiday known as Remembrance Day. Wherever it is celebrated, and however it’s called, it’s a day of remembrance of those who have fought against tyranny and for freedom.
World War I — known at the time as “The Great War” & “the war to end all wars” — officially ended on June 28, 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. The fighting had actually ended seven months earlier when an agreement was reached between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on November 11, 1918; it was to happen at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Originally, the day was known as Armistice Day in the US, instituted by President Woodrow Wilson.
On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.
The name was changed to its current name in 1954 by a proclamation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…
The words of those proclamations call us to honor the men and women of the Armed Forces, something that has been somewhat lessened in the years since the World Wars. To many, Veterans Day is just another holiday that give many a day off from work or school, marked by big sales at retail stores. That really is a shame.
We as a society tend to forget those things we haven’t directly experienced. And that’s too bad because humanity is rather unique in that we can pass knowledge down to our descendants, but we often fall short because of the difficulty in relating the impact events have on us to those who haven’t experienced what we are trying to relate.
While I did not experience either of the World Wars directly, I did spend some time in uniform, and being in a position where I could have been sent to fight helped me to better appreciate what others have been called to do.
Yeah, I’ve been on a history kick lately. I have just been struck many times lately by the way we take things for granted and don’t appreciate what others have done to enable us to enjoy what we now have. I choose to remember, and I choose to be thankful for those who have sacrificed all on my behalf.