Today is Veterans Day (although I don’t understand why it isn’t Veterans’ Day) and I was curious about its origin. Turns out it dates to the First World War that formally ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918.
WW I was to have been the war to end all wars, and President Woodrow Wilson declared the first Veterans Day one year later. Only it was called Armistice Day back then. In 1954 Congress changed the name.
So the holiday is coming up on its one hundredth birthday. One hundred years of honoring those who were in the Armed Services and served their country in war and peace.
Where I live, more than one eatery offers free meals to veterans on this day. I think this is the least we can do. I may not always agree with my country’s storming into battles of all kinds everywhere, but I always respect the men and women who represent us there.
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