The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

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The moment the hands of the clock registered eleven in the morning on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns of August fell silent and World War I ended. The war would not officially conclude until the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.

Today, many members of the British Commonwealth will wear poppies for what they call Remembrance Day. The King and Queen of the United Kingdom will participate in ceremonies, as will the leaders of other European nations. World War I was the war that changed everything in Europe.

It upended the working class and aristocracy. Towns were wiped out of men, both young and old. Women had to join the workforce. What once was could no longer be, and nations had to realign. Some fell to revolution and radicalism.

In the United States, we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11. We do so because we already have our Remembrace Day, our Memorial Day.

During the Obama Administration, the United States presumed to finally catch up to the dead from the Civil War, based on adding up the dead of all other wars combined that the United States fought in. But new research suggests the Civil War has still killed more Americans than all other wars combined.

We live in a nation where partisans on each side have decided they can no longer live with partisans on the other side. This is mostly a phenomenon of the people who worship at the altar of politics and are hyperonline.

There are those online who are feeding and fanning the flames for a new Civil War. They believe, on both sides, they could remake this nation in their own image. They are fools.

The American Civil War saw over 600,000 killed. These people dishonor the dead by their foolish insistence on finding uncommon and uncomfortable ground on which to divide us and drive us to hate each other.

The nation has always had differences. When we make Washington the center of our universe, it makes divisions seem worse. And as we know each other less, we divide even more.

Today, Europeans remember their dead, and we honor our veterans. As we honor our veterans, we should remember we honor them today because so many were killed during the Civil War, we beat the Europeans to a Memorial Day. We should not wish to or desire to repeat it, and we should not listen to the foolish little monsters who’d have us at each other’s throats so they can take advantage of the situation.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.