So, it all began in the early 1900s...
Meet the world:
The world was unhappy.Particularly this part of it:
aka the entire Eastern Hemisphere
There had been trouble brewing between these unhappy countries for quite a while over various different things ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Oh, wait, wrong time period in history.How about, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." No?Whatever.) but the huge swirling vortex of unhappiness combined with powerful leaders that leads to war happened in 1914. On June 28, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated while taking a pleasant tour of Bosnia.
Truth be told, Franz Ferdinand wasn't particularly liked by the people of his own country, let alone other countries, so nobody was really too grief stricken.However, Austria-Hungary didn't like Serbia to begin with, and they wanted to kick Serbian influence out of Bosnia for good, so they played the "You killed our Archduke!" card to their advantage and deliberately picked a fight.
From there,everything kind of escalated, as these things have a tendency to do.Everybody chose sides and formed alliances and countries all over the world became involved because of said alliances.Thus World War I began.
The United States was trying its best to go with the "I am Switzerland.I am neutral" policy, but after some of our merchants were blown up at sea by German war ships, Lady Liberty got a little ticked.Congress officially approved the declaration of war on Germany in April of 1917.It took a little while to get started, though.After declaring war on Germany, the United States realized they kind of didn't have enough people serving in their military to do much good.That's when we perfected the art of drafting people.Eventually we ended up putting so many men in the military that we were shipping out 10,000 ship-shape soldiers to Europe a day.
Anyways,as anybody who has taken basic American history (or any world history,to be honest, since this was a World war) knows, World War I lasted until 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany.Never mind the fact that said treaty mortified,embarrassed,picked on and stripped naked the country of Germany,even though there were other countries involved.Never mind the fact that treating the Germans like dogs has a tendency to infuriate patriotic Austrian boys with anger issues and strongly rooted hatred for Jews.That's easy to overlook,right?
Ummm...Sure?You can overlook that for approximately the next 14 years.Then you're screwed.
Anywho,enough of that.My point is that on November 11, all those years ago, Armistice Day was proclaimed a national holiday for the United States of America.And we still celebrate that same holiday today, only it's now called Veterans Day due to a man in Kansas who thought to rename it,and attracted enough attention from government to make it happen.
And so, today, we celebrate all veterans.If you ask me, that's definitely something worth celebrating.
I've grown up in the good old US of A and therefore been surrounded by things like Independence Day and Veterans Day my entire life.Sure,I've always been able to see that they're important.I mean, why else would they be national holidays?
It's only over the last few years that I have been so blessed to be able to truly see how important these days really are.I have gained an entirely new appreciation of all those who currently serve and those who have served in the past, because of my friends.To date, I personally know people in the Army,the Navy, the National Guard, and the Air Force.
Nothing makes me more proud to be an American that to finally have a full appreciation and understanding of the people who are willing to go out, fight for, and defend my freedom.
Happy Veterans Day, and God bless!
Be sure to stay tuned in with Turner Classic Movies today, in honor of Veterans Day.
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