Today, November 11, is Veterans Day — a holiday to remember all who have served in the U.S. Military.
Veterans Day is spelled as it is for a very specific reason. The apostrophe, which would be the little curly mark between the “n” and the “s” is not used — that would denote possession. Veterans Day is not a day that belongs to Veterans or is owned by Veterans in any capacity. It is a day for everyone, regardless of they’ve served or not, to reflect on the sacrifices of people who have served. The day may be dedicated to Veterans, but Veterans do not own it.
I think I’ve mentioned before that when I was a kid, every Veterans Day, volunteers went to all the stores in Maysville and handed out red (paper) poppies. They were free, but most people that took the poppies made a donation that went to help the VFW. I never knew the significance of the poppies until long after I had left Maysville and became more “worldly.”
The WWI battlefield was a place where no life could flourish or even survive. After the fighting ceased and the bombings stopped, however, the ravaged land began to heal as nature took its course. During the healing process, red poppies bloomed and gave new life to the death-tainted landscape of WWI.
A Canadian physician Lieutenant, Colonel John McCrae, wrote a heart-wrenching poem depicting the visage of the war-torn, poppy filled battlefields…. called “In Flanders Fields.”
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 hand we throw
The torch; be your stop hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Over the years, lots has been written about Veterans Day, but these words may the most poetic and poignant.
In 2016, President Obama signed the Veterans Day Moment of Silence Act. This means that at 3:11 p.m. (Atlantic Standard Time) each Veterans Day, the current President will call for an official moment of silence for two minutes. Why 3:11? I’m not sure, but we’ve all heard about the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month…. this was when the Armistice call for a (temporary) cessation of hostilities was signed, but it was not the official end of the war. The ending of World War I is officially marked by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in France on June 28, 1919. But we still celebrate Veterans Day on November 11 because that date marked the beginning of the end of WWI.
Today is Veterans Day — an important day in our history — celebrate it appropriately.
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