Firing on the First World War’s Western Front ended on Nov. 11, 1918, at “the eleventh hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.” After four years of fighting, an eerie stillness fell across the battlefields of Europe. The next day, Allied commander Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch sent a message to the Allied Armies: “You have won the greatest battle in history and served the most sacred cause - the Liberty of the World
November 10, 2018, the weather was rainy, that dreary blanket of cold wet moisture dripping around your body, finding its way to any part of your body, that might be growing a new batch of arthritis, reminding you of that sprain or bruise from decades ago, or it just might be an uncomfortable bit of mother nature, just annoying and bothersome. It rained in Rethondes, the Glade of the Armistice, the location representing the end of WWI. But two nations, leaders representing the history of aggression and animosity came together to present a new union, one which took a second world war, a Korean Conflict, a war in Viet Nam, and various conflicts thought out the planet earth, including a war called Cold, to lay a wreath and provide for the moment an assurance that it no longer was about the politics of war that mattered, but the lives lost and the enduring pain of the families for which love had been lost also.
In America, we usually provide thoughts and prayers for those wounded by war, whether it be something by external enemies, or nowadays those who are homegrown terrorists and soldiers of domestic death and destruction. Politicians need war, so it seems, throughout history, for many of them to remain in power. Always find an enemy, always demonstrate your own might, and convince the fearful to become hateful and the hateful to then identify as Patriots. Death, for the Troops, is final, the heinous and horrendous manner in which many perish, sometimes too disturbing to discuss. Methods of war heat changed but men and women die…and then often times after we honor their valor and courage, we do ask exactly for what and why. It is not that war is an unnecessary invention by man, but often times wars, being an invention of man, must be scrutinized as might any creation as to its purpose, and its reason.
On November, 10, 2018 the day before the true Armistice, ending the First World War, Mr Trump, representing the United States and the Troops called into action to help fight for democracy, decided that the rain, the mist, perhaps the chill, the wind, the murk, the fog, or just the fucking inconvenience of standing in a muddy field was too much of a burden…after all his bone spurs cause him great discomfort also.
Today, November 11, 2018, a Century later, as humans we still honor our dead, from serving in a war which at the time was certain to be the only World War. Trump is nothing but a baboon, bathed in hot air coiffed and clothed and living in an Ivory Tower (one probably owned bun the Chinese or Saudi Royal Family), and Trump as Commander-In-Chief, once again demonstrated his disdain for the individual man and woman serving as Troops. What I still cannot grasp is even with his disrespect and disparaging behavior most Veterans and their Organizations support this man as if he had the same convictions, and conscience as those of every creed, color, religion or political stance to fight for the freedoms that keep America safe. Nothing but a fool, afraid of the world in front of him, having snubbed his nose at the dead, Trump still maintains a following from the families of those who died…letting this nation NOW suffer the consequences of a sham who would rather be King!
