Poppies over Parades

As someone on Active Duty, it gets real annoying every November 11th as my Facebook feed explodes with people saying Happy Veterans Day. I've never understood why we call this a happy day. I sometimes think we focus on the day off and happy thoughts to forget why this day even matters.

At the end of World War I (the war to end all wars), an armistice took effect at 1100 on November 11th. In the years after that war, the day was set aside to remember all those who participated in such a brutal war that saw the advent of trench warfare and poison gas against troops. Armistice day was designed for parades, public meetings and a brief suspension of business (most would participate in two minutes of silence at 1100). After World War II and the realization that war may never end, remembrance was set aside on Memorial Day (a holiday from the Civil War) and Veterans Day was established to remember all who served in any war.

Perhaps we need to get back to remembering Armistice Day rather than seeing which corporation can offer the best freebies to the military. Because in doing so we have lost sight of two things. First, war is horrible, brutal and has long lasting effects. Armistice Day stood as a hope for peace, a hope to never have to send young men against their will to fight other young men holding weapons against their will across a field over an argument neither of them really had any true understanding of. I'm no pacifist, and realize that we will probably always have war and will sometimes need to resort to force in protecting the innocent. But that doesn't mean we can't work towards truly making the next war the last war as was the hope on that initial Armistice Day in 1918. If that is the reason you are saying thank you and not putting the military on some weird pedestal, then go right ahead.

Second, I think we don't want to keep the original impetus behind Armistice Day because we don't want to reflect on the sadness that comes with service in the military. We in America love to think happy thoughts and will do almost anything to avoid dealing with death and dark things. We can't run from it. If we avoid the dark side of military service we end up with a Veterans Administration that doesn't really help veterans with problems because they aren't living into the narrative we want. We end up with veterans on the street and unemployed because employers are scared their PTSD is a ticking time bomb. We honor the dead on Memorial Day and those who currently serve on Veterans Day because they aren't going to speak up about the horrors of war and what we ask our young men and women to do on our behalf.

Two years ago I was in Afghanistan when one of British civilians working with our battalion came into a meeting a few weeks before Veterans Day wearing a red poppy on his lapel. I had no idea why he was wearing a flower, so I asked. He talked of how that was the tradition on his side of the pond from November 1st until Armistice Day (sometimes called Remembrance Day) to honor those who served and died. He then told me of a poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae written in 1915 that inspired the wearing of the poppy. It made me think that we have lost sight of the hopes of those who served in WWI. I have included it below:

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.

Maybe we can learn more about ourselves and reignite the hope that this war is the last war if we were to heed the words of this poem and spend more time wearing poppies than celebrating on a day like today.