Remember
The 10 cent designer
In the nations of the British Commonwealth, it’s Remembrance Day. In the U.S. it’s called Veterans Day. In France and many other European nations, it remains Armistice Day. That’s how it began.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, a cease fire was called to end what should have been the Only World War. Fighting (which is a polite way of saying ‘killing and dying’) continued along the Russian front and in parts of the old Ottoman Empire, but the war was generally considered to be over. More than fifteen million people died in that war, nearly a third of which were civilians. If ever a day deserved to be set aside for reflection, this was it.
In most of the Commonwealth nations, two minutes of silence are still observed at 11am to honor the dead of all wars. In 1954 the U.S. government officially expanded the holiday to honor the service of all military veterans. In the U.S. there are no two minutes of silence. In the U.S. merchants use the holiday sell mattresses and washing machines.
In Flanders Field the poppies grow / Between the crosses, row on row, and at Sears you can get 20% off on all Kenmore appliances.
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