Veterans Day 2018

The Temperature Outside
November 11, 2018

Well, there can be no doubt about it now, Winter is just around the corner. 

The temperature outside this morning is 24 degrees!

Brrrr.

I am glad that I am working inside, but I already miss being outside. The leaves have fallen everywhere and I need to get them off the lawns and from around the pool. But it is too cold!


Today, however, is a day to celebrate our veterans! Those who, like myself, have dedicated themselves to this Republic. 

It is not a secret that I respect the thoughts and words of President Ronald Reagan, and so on this Veterans Day 2018, I have found these thoughts about the day from our former President:

From Time Magazine:

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan explained why the old label for the day had ceased to be applicable:

…I may be one of the few people in this room who remembers when Veterans Day was called Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice that ended the First World War on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year in 1918. And I might add, I not only remember when it was called that day, I guess we may be the only ones that were on the streets in the wild celebration of the first and actual Armistice Day when it was signed.

Armistice Day honored those who gave their lives in “the war to end all wars”— a day of hope that they had not given their lives in vain. But within a few years, and in spite of an impressive effort on the part of the Western democracies to limit arms and to outlaw war, aggressors rearmed and war came again. Ironically, Armistice Day was made a legal holiday in the United States in 1938, just 1 year before a second and more terrible conflagration swept across Europe.

President Reagan at Arlington
Veterans Day 1986

President Reagan's 1986 Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery contains some inspiring words.

Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember. -- From The Daily Signal

He went on to recognize many of our heroes during that speech, but, it contains one more line that really caught my attention:

We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD