Of the annual patriotic American holidays, Veterans Day is perhaps the most somber and low key. The weather isn’t conducive to Memorial Day or Labor Day style barbecues; the kids still have to go to school and most of us will go to work. I’ve never been invited to a ‘Veterans Day Dinner’ or turned on the television to watch a special Veteran’s Day parade or sporting event.
In Fayette County, we do a great job recognizing our veterans year round. Peachtree City, Brooks and Fayette Senior Services plan special activities commemorating November 11, but it remains one of those holidays that often slips by without much attention. I’m sure hundreds of Fayette Countians -- especially the younger ones -- will fall asleep this coming Wednesday night without realizing that the preceeding day was an official holiday in all 50 states.
Perhaps the holiday’s history has something to do with its subdued nature. Veterans Day wasn’t always “Veterans Day.” It used to be called by another name.
In the year 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Allies and Germany came together at Rethondes, France, and signed an armistice that ended hostilities on the Western Front.
“The War to End All Wars” was finally over. Roughly 20 million had perished, but the November 11 peace lasted. No new skirmishes broke out. The soldiers went home.
In the United States and other allied countries, November 11 became an official holiday called Armistice Day. President Woodrow Wilson declared it so in 1919. Several years later, an act of Congress made November 11 a federal legal holiday, calling Armistice Day, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace.”
All around the globe, people embraced the tradition of pausing for two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day as a tribute to all those who fought in the Great War, as well as to give thanks for peace.
The holiday began to lose its significance in 1939. As Britain and other western countries prepared for the impending war against Germany, it became clear that the “War to End All Wars” would soon need a new name. In some countries, the two-minute Armistice Day silence was moved to the Sunday nearest November 11 to prevent it from interfering with wartime production.
Over 60 million people died in World War II -- the deadliest conflict in human history. In the 1950’s, Armistice Day in the United States was changed to Veterans Day to remember all those that had served. The original language about the holiday being dedicated to ‘world peace’ was dropped.
The late great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut mentioned the holiday in “Breakfast of Champions,” one of his more widely known works.
Vonnegut, an American World War II veteran and former prisoner of war, wrote “When I 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 and 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.”
An outspoken humanist and anti-war activist, Vonnegut spent much of his life trying to appeal to the better parts of our nature. Like so many other 20th century occurrences, the establishment of Veterans Day disappointed him. A holiday dedicated to peace and those who fought in the “War to End All Wars” was replaced by a holiday to honor a continually growing population of war veterans. The name ‘Veterans Day’ itself suggests that we will always have living war veterans to honor -- that war will never be eradicated.
On Veterans Day 2009, we find ourselves at war again.
Maybe it’s ok that Veterans Day is the quietest of our patriotic holidays. It gives us time to reflect and think about the profound sacrifices so many have made and are making for this country. On Wednesday, I’ll call and thank the veterans I know.
If Vonnegut were still with us, he might remind our leaders that the best way to honor our war veterans is to stop creating new ones.
Alverson is the news and sports editor for this paper and a U.S. Navy veteran. |
