{"id":1884,"date":"2010-11-11T07:12:43","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T12:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2010-11-11T07:12:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T12:12:43","slug":"1111-a-m-have-you-valued-your-freedom-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/2010\/11\/1111-a-m-have-you-valued-your-freedom-today\/","title":{"rendered":"11:11 a.m. – Have you valued your freedom today?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.”
\n– Chris Hedges, War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remember Veteran’s Day as a child. I remember going to school. It was always hot and stuffy, and the classroom had that particular industrial paint over cinderblock smell characteristic of schools in the 1970s. I also remember sitting quietly for two minutes at 11:11 a.m. It was never a burden.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Veteran’s affairs, Memorial Day is older with claims of first celebration dating back to May 1866<\/a>. But Veterans Day, or Armistice Day as it was originally called<\/a>, seems some how more significant to me. It was a specific recognition, however tacitly, that humanity had finally achieved a capacity to do violence to each other that we found subliminally terrifying. After all, World War I was dubbed “the war to end all wars.” Little did we know what was coming in less than 50 years<\/acronym>.<\/p>\n

In 1954 after much lobbying by veterans’ groups, Congress changed the official name of the holiday in the U.S. from Armistice Day to Veterans Day in recognition of American veterans of all wars. And here is where the celebrations get muddy in the United States.<\/p>\n

Armistice Day was originally declared in 1919 by Woodrow Wilson “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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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 peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” <\/p>\n

Memorial Day observances were expanded after World War I from originally commemorating those who had died in the Civil War to honoring casualties of all American Wars. In 1971 Memorial Day was made a national holiday by an act of Congress.<\/p>\n

So which is the more solemn holiday? Do we honor our dead in May and celebrate those who survived in November? Or is it just all about death? It’s confusing for those of us who remember sitting quietly and contemplating for those two minutes what it meant to be free.<\/p>\n

People who serve in the military, for whatever reason they entered, engage in a necessary evil for the good of their country. While I’m not sure I always agree with how necessary what they might be doing is, I can’t help but appreciate the sacrifices they make to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” – Chris Hedges, War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning I remember Veteran’s Day as a child. I remember going to school. It was always hot and stuffy, and the classroom had that particular industrial paint over cinderblock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nablopomo-2010","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homemaderavioli.com\/woodstock\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}