Today is Veterans Day, but it used to be called Armistice Day. And it was a mistake to change the name. We should celebrate peace, we should celebrate the end of war, not war itself.
Kurt Vonnegut, born on this day, would agree.
Kurt Vonnegut, born on this day, would agree.
Vonnegut was himself a veteran. He dropped out of college to enlist & serve in WWII. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he survived the bombing of Dresden.
In Breakfast of Champions, he wrote about the name-change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. It's worth reading today.
In Breakfast of Champions, he wrote about the name-change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. It's worth reading today.
"When I was a boy...all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
"It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another.
"I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
"Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
"So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder.
"Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
"So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder.
"Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
"What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
"And all music is."
"And all music is."
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