It is amazing to me how little Veteran's Day means to most people - or maybe it is just the people I see in the street. In Europe, it is a national holiday. In America, unless you work for the government or a generous employer, it is merely one more day. On November 11, 1918, the Armistace ending World War I was signed, bringing closure to a war whose effects are far more reaching than many assume. The four years of heavy and hard and yes, even senseless fighting, changed Europe and drove foreign policy for years. The damage caused by the Great War would not be fully realized until decades later, if then. One can still go to the Somme, Verdenne or Ypres and see the damage caused by the incessant bombardments, the trench warfare that took so many lives.
Veteran's Day is a celebration - the end of a war, the first war that ushered in modern warfare to the European mind. (To be fair, the American Civil War displayed the terrible price modern armies could pay during war time.)It is also a day of remembrance and thanksgiving: to the soldiers who were, who died protecting something they believed in; the soldiers who are, who even now are fighting and dying for what they believe in; and the soldiers who will be.
War is a terrible thing. Yet to forget it or triviliaze the actions of the men and women who fight is worse.
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