11/11/11

Another weird mathematical day, at least by our usual convention of date abbreviation.

November 11th is Veterans Day. Does anybody remember why? I know some people do, but let me expose: the Allied forces that had soundly beaten the German/Austro-Hungarian side in what was then known as the Great War let the fighting continue for a few days. The war was over and the victors known, but the combatants were allowed to keep fighting for a handful of days just so the was could be declared over at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".

November 11th was the day the cease-fire and peace accord was signed, ending what's been retconned as World War I.

They picked such a poetic image, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, to have the added effect that nobody would ever forget. Judging by segments from nighttime talkshows where guys like Jay Leno or Jimmy Fallon go out to the street with cameras and ask questions of regular folks about 9/11, something barely ten years old has already been muddied and mixed up, leaving little confidence that people will remember in a generation, let alone almost a century.

The images of the burning towers will be forever understood as a tragic day for America, but give it a few more decades and the details will be lost on the masses.

Call it the American Amnesia Phenomena.

When I learned that our Veterans Day is the same day as Europe's Armistice Day it was not fully in learning about the poetic nature of the end of the hostilities on the western front. Rather, my professor was relating an anecdote about the moment her soldier grandfather lost his faith in his government. Specifically, he learned that they had postponed the end of the war by a few days to make the 11th of November the day they'd call it over.

I remember it not because of the poetry, but because of the desire for governments to make propaganda out of the poetry, historic propaganda.

But, the plight of veterans has been real and tough for years, especially nowadays, with the job outlook on the home front the way it is, it won't be getting any easier for vets.

Pulling for you, for sure.