The First World War ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June of 1919. The fighting, however, ended several months earlier — with hostilities ending between the Allies and Germany on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. The picture above was taken at 10:58 AM on November Eleventh, 1918, two minutes before the cease-fire that effectively ended World War I went into effect.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 declared November 11th to be a day to remember the Armistice, saying: “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.”
This has evolved into Veterans Day.
For a long time, the concept of a ‘veteran’ was very distant to my generation. World War II and Korea belonged to our grandparents; Vietnam may have belonged to our parents, although many of them didn’t go. A veteran was the old men selling plastic poppies outside the grocery stores, dressed in his V.F.W uniforms, spine as straight as the day he first signed up. The poppies are sold to raise money to pay for the care for the disabled veterans. The poppies come from the poem, “In Flander’s Field”:
IN FLANDER’S FIELD
by John McCrae
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw,
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us, who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
In Flanders Fields.
Flander’s Field is the only American World War I cemetery in Belgium; 411 men are buried there.
I saw a young man selling poppies yesterday. The wars are not so distant now, are they? Iraq, Afghanistan, the planes that flew over Libya. Iran is looming on the horizon.
Don’t just say ‘I support the troops.” Give them money. Pay attention when Congress passes budget cuts to military hospitals and veterans benefits. Pay attention when stories like these come out — more post-9/11 living in poverty. Imagine how hard it is to come home to a nation that didn’t have to suffer a second while you did what you had to do. Imagine being this guy who came home and had every reason to give up and instead — laughed. Imagine how hard it is to do two or three tours and miss your children’s first year at school, or more.
Buy a poppy. Shake the vet’s hand. And say thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St_ppgWT8I4
