The 11th Hour, of the 11th Day, of the 11th Month

It was 95 years ago today that World War 1 ended. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Unfortunately we have had a few wars since. I think the entire world has been at war, since Cain and Able squared off a few years back! I read somewhere that close to 25% of all the countries in the world have some type of conflict going on-either internally or with someone else. Yikes. And we have had wars in this country going all the way back to the 1600's. One of the worst was King Phillip's War, between the Native Americans and the colonists, in 1675, where more "Americans" were killed per capita than any other war in our history.

But today is a day to remember all those who have served over the years. Many of them went over that hill and never came back. Many have horrible injuries, physical and mental, and are in hospital beds in places like Walter Reed Hospital. And many wives who have lost husbands are struggling to get by and raise their children. And many others are struggling with the stress of what they went through. We all owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude.

One of the restaurants in my hometown of Newburyport, Michaels, serves a free meal every Veterans Day to all veterans. They serve several hundred meals and have been doing this for years. A very nice gesture. But we should just not remember all the veterans today. We should think of them and their families throughout the year and we should work with our elected officials, locally and nationally, to make sure they get the support they deserve and need. Today at 11am I will toast all the veterans, current and past, with a wee bit of brandy.

And maybe we should all watch the video of John Lennon singing "Give Peace a Chance" that he wrote back in the 1969 time frame. And maybe we all should indeed, give it a chance.