Armistice Day
An armistice was called between the combatants in the Great War (later known as World War I) for the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month in 1918.
That day was long known by the victors as Armistice Day. Now it is called Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom, and Veterans’ Day in these United States.
So many young men died in that war. Left behind in each of the warring countries were young widows, and women who would never be able to marry because the cream of males had perished.
Memorials were set up in small towns and on village greens throughout the United Kingdom (and doubtless also in the U.S.A..
In the U.K. they often bore this inscription - a lament to the young dead. It is from a longer poem by Lawrence Binyon.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
As well as being known as the Great War, or the 1914-18 war, people called it “The War to End All Wars”.
It was not be so. Within 21 years Europe was at war again, joined by the U.S.A. in 1941 after the Pearl Harbour attack.
Britain and France have had their post 1945 colonial wars; the United Nations in Korea; and the U.S.A. in Vietnam, and twice in the Persian Gulf.
40,000 “Brits” have died in combat since 1945.
In Vietnam the American toll was 58,209 killed in action, and 153,303 wounded in action.
Going on 4,000 American and British young men and women have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are flags all over Sarasota today. They will stay up through the weekend. I fly mine every day, my “little statement” that Liberals are patriots!
I noticed that it had torn so went off to ACE hardware to buy a new one. I am supposed to burn my old flag (one also should burn old Bibles), but since I do not have a fireplace I’ll take it to the American Legion.
It is a grand old flag. But it’s very hard for me to pledge allegiance to it. The problem for me is not the flag, but the idea of pledging allegiance to an inanimate object.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The first version of the pledge was published in 1892 (The 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage). The words “under God” were not added until 1954.
Here is what I wish it said:
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution and Bill of Rights
of the United States America, symbolized in our flag.
One Nation, of many faiths and none, with liberty and justice for all.
That will not fly I know, but I will keep that two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 2007.
That day was long known by the victors as Armistice Day. Now it is called Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom, and Veterans’ Day in these United States.
So many young men died in that war. Left behind in each of the warring countries were young widows, and women who would never be able to marry because the cream of males had perished.
Memorials were set up in small towns and on village greens throughout the United Kingdom (and doubtless also in the U.S.A..
In the U.K. they often bore this inscription - a lament to the young dead. It is from a longer poem by Lawrence Binyon.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
As well as being known as the Great War, or the 1914-18 war, people called it “The War to End All Wars”.
It was not be so. Within 21 years Europe was at war again, joined by the U.S.A. in 1941 after the Pearl Harbour attack.
Britain and France have had their post 1945 colonial wars; the United Nations in Korea; and the U.S.A. in Vietnam, and twice in the Persian Gulf.
40,000 “Brits” have died in combat since 1945.
In Vietnam the American toll was 58,209 killed in action, and 153,303 wounded in action.
Going on 4,000 American and British young men and women have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are flags all over Sarasota today. They will stay up through the weekend. I fly mine every day, my “little statement” that Liberals are patriots!
I noticed that it had torn so went off to ACE hardware to buy a new one. I am supposed to burn my old flag (one also should burn old Bibles), but since I do not have a fireplace I’ll take it to the American Legion.
It is a grand old flag. But it’s very hard for me to pledge allegiance to it. The problem for me is not the flag, but the idea of pledging allegiance to an inanimate object.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
one Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.
The first version of the pledge was published in 1892 (The 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage). The words “under God” were not added until 1954.
Here is what I wish it said:
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution and Bill of Rights
of the United States America, symbolized in our flag.
One Nation, of many faiths and none, with liberty and justice for all.
That will not fly I know, but I will keep that two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 2007.
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