*“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is.
Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions (1973)
In 1938 Congress proclaimed; “…it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and…inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.”
The date referred is November 11th; the day an armistice was signed bringing an end to the “War to end all wars”. The proclamation established Armistice Day as a national holiday.
Unfortunately the horrors of World War One were to be outdone by those of World War Two and to honor the sacrifices of the veterans who fought in it and the Korean War, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day in 1954. Previous proclamations by Presidents Wilson (1919) and Coolidge (1926) did recognize the sacrifice of those who fought and died in WWI. While it is fitting and proper to honor all veterans for their service, the original intent of November eleventh has become lost to the militarization and commercialization of this important date.
With flags flying and bands playing, veterans from all eras march in parades. Dignitaries give glowing speeches glorifying the heroism of those who had the misfortune to end up in combat. Fighter jets streak above the gathered crowds, cannons roar, taps played and shopping malls offer special sales on merchandise more than likely made in third world countries. So one day a year we remember those men and women who put on the uniform and took the oath. The rest of the year it is business as usual.