Veteran's Day is a Morph

Like many Americans, I am a veteran of military servcie, and I fly the flag on Veteran's Day. I am also old enough to remember when it was called Armistice Day, a memory task made easier because, if November 11 came on a weekday, it meant a usuallly damp and bleak Seattle day when I didn't have to trudge off to school, and regardles of the day of the week, it was the holiday that came the day before my birthday.

Armistice Day was proclaimed in the 1920's as a solemn remembrance of the day that the World War ended, world peace was restored, peaceful relations with all nations was resumed and the hope was expressed that peaceful relations would never again be severed. The day was to be commemorated "with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations." This Congressional sentiment was again expressed in 1938.

But in 1954, during the McCarthy Era and at the urging of Veteran's groups, Armistice Day was morphed by Congress into Veteran's Day, which has now become a day when we honor veterans and their military service and seem to have completely forgotten the underlying peace prayerful purpose of Armistice Day.

The Congree in 1954 was, I believe, the last one that was totally controlled by the Republicans with a Republican President in the White House. In addition to McCarthyism, that Congress also contributed the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance - and managed to let the Soviets beat us into space.

Here is a Veteran's Administration page on the history of Veteran's Day:
http://www1.va.gov/vetsday/page.cfm?pg=3