Veterans Are an Important Part of America

by Pa Rock
American

A few years ago Congress moved several federal holidays to Mondays, a move that provided federal workers with some three-day weekends.  At that time, however, Congress did not mess with a few special holidays.  Thanksgiving would remain on Thursday, and Christmas and New Year's would remain untouched for obvious reasons.  Veterans Day, November 11th, also remained untouched, and there was a reason for that as well.

Veterans Day is tied to the day the armistice that ended World War I was signed:  the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.  November 11th became the day that our nation would pause in remembrance of its veterans, and nothing would dare to change that, not even Congress.

That is why your mail will not be delivered this Wednesday.

Veterans have been used to holding a place of honor in American society, but during the Trump interlude they have suffered the occasional indignities of being mocked and ridiculed, and even forgotten by our nation's leader.   A couple of years ago Donald Trump skipped a ceremony at a veterans' cemetery in France because a light rain that was falling would have mussed his hair.  Other leaders of the allied nations that had fought in World War I did stand in the rain and pay tribute to their nation's fallen that morning.  And then, unbelievably, Trump, himself a draft-dodger who had mocked Senator McCain for being captured in the Vietnam War, was quoted in a major US magazine as referring to America's war dead as "suckers" and "losers."  

And at about the same time, when news stories appeared alleging that the Russian government had placed bounties on the lives of American military members serving in Afghanistan, Trump and nearly all GOP members of Congress chose to handle that outrage by completely ignoring it.  Trump, a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, never even raised the matter in any of his subsequent dealings with Putin.

Trump's disregard of the military and veterans undoubtedly cost hims support in the recent election.  Cindy McCain, if fact, a prominent Arizona Republican and the widow of POW and senator, John McCain, endorsed Joe Biden as a result of Trump's "suckers" and "losers" comment - and Biden went on to carry her state - barely.

Because this Wednesday is Veterans Day, I felt that it would be appropriate to start the week off with a poem about veterans.  World War I produced a number of very good poets, and one of the best was a Canadian doctor and soldier named John McCrae who penned the most famous poem out of World War I, "In Flanders Fields," after a close friend was killed in battle.   It revolves around a military cemetery in Belgium where the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row.    I ran this poem in this spot in 2010, but it bears sharing again.

God bless those who have given so much in order that we can still choose our leaders through elections.

In Flanders Fields 

by LTC John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) 
Canadian Army

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 hands we throw 
The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields.