Let’s call this Veteran’s Week!

This is the week during which Veteran’s Day is observed — and many people believe it should really be called Veteran’s Week, when we recognize and honor all veterans, past and present, for their service to our country. Our local schools do a great job of joining the observance with appropriate programs to remember our vets. School administrators are to be complimented on their direction in that regard. 

The observance of Veteran’s Day goes back a long way, with the origin written in historical accounts of the important holiday. 

World War I — known at the time as “The Great War” — officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.” In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following 

words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us, and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with and justice in the councils of the nations...” 

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11 a.m. 

The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926. 

An Act approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” 

Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
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How’s This For a Political Speech?“....and when reelected I solemnly promise to keep all the promises I made in my first campaign!”

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