I want to express my respects for all those who have died while serving our country. I am sorrowful for those who mourn them. wish we could put down our swords and beat them into ploughshares and go to war no more, ever.
*my brother wrote to tell me that this was Veterans Day, not Memorial Day, and of course he is right. A senior moment on my part. Both days feel the same to me. A day to remember and honor those who serve and a day to remember those who lost their lives.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is Veterans Day
Valerie Abrahams Associate Editor Scarsdale Inquirer
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Today is Veteran’s Day. It is the day we honor all those who serve or are serving in our nation’s Armed Forces. Memorial Day is when we honor those who sacrificed their lives. You have confused the two. Fyi, yesterday was the Marine Corps Birthday. Semper Fi! JC
Today is Veterans Day.
A senior moment
The war remembrance days feel akin and make me weep for those who died and those who lost loved ones
And those who increasingly have not died but came home with broken bodies and minds to suffer with the rest of their lives. Their reward for the sacrifice will be the cutting off of the supports they require . . By those who wave the flag and cheer every time they see the rockets red glare.. By a populous no longer required to have their sons and daughters potentially share in that sacrifice. A populous who no longer pays attention to our endless wars. To the point that the flag waving “jelly bellied arm chair patriots” would berate Gold Star families.
Let us not forget that Veterans Day was originally a celebration of Armistice Day. The end of the “War to end all Wars”
I have often confused the names of the holidays honoring the military, too, Diane, especially those that have had more than one name, including Memorial Day, which used to be called Decoration Day.
Armistice Day was officially changed to Veteran’s Day in 1954, but like Memorial Day, it was still called by its former name by elders when I was growing up. People typically wore an artificial poppy to commemorate what occurred In Flanders Fields, as described by the poem of that name. They still do that in some places here, and also in the UK and France, where the holiday continues to be officially called Armistice Day, though all people in the service are honored there now.
Whatever the names, I think these holidays are important reminders to us to recall and honor, at least twice a year, all who serve our country, whether living, injured, missing or dead.
Reteach,
I am old enough to remember Armistice Day.
What makes me sad today is thinking about the wars we engaged in that we learned later were a huge mistake. I watched Ken Burns’ series on Vietnam, and the very first episode shows that Ho Chi Minh tried to make an alliance with us against colonialism, and we ignored him. Then the French abandoned their colonial hold on Vietnam, and we picked up their burden. I remember the war vividly and knew nothing about the backstory; I swallowed the same Domino theory that JFK and LBJ believed. In January, I plan to visit Vietnam and Cambodia as a tourist. Strange turn of fate.
I won’t get started about the war in Iraq. We were told that the people would greet us as liberators. They didn’t. We are still bogged down in an endless war that started on 9/11, maybe earlier.
I honor and respect the men and women who have put their lives at risk in service to our country. I thank them for their service and their valor. I mourn for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
I wish our leaders were wiser about sending them into combat. I remember during the Vietnam War, wishing that I lived in a country that didn’t feel the need to police the world. Did you know we have troops in Niger? I didn’t. Apparently neither did Congress.
The US Army has had combat troops in Africa, for many years. It is no secret. see
https://www.africom.mil/
In today’s world, I have trouble saying “thank you for your service”…I am more inclined to say “I’m sorry that you have had to do the things that were asked of you” (one serviceman I said that to, broke down and cried and cried…then he said, “I liked children”…and cried some more. Our wars have been illegal and aggressive for greed and US hegemony. The only winners are the Military Industrial Complex and the billions that are made from the sales of weapons overseas…..so more war can continue. This is a very, very sad state of affairs.
Leslie, I agree with you.
If the US spent the trillions wasted on war and put it into helping people we would be making a difference. We would be a leader and would regain respect in the world. We have destroyed and killed to the tune of trillions of dollars with no end in sight.
My motto is: “Stop the Killing.”
I feel that those who serve in the military are being used and abused. I’d like to see the children of Trump and Congress be the first to go into any war. We’d rethink our priorities.
We cannot kill our way to peace. As you say, “This is a very, very sad state of affairs”.
If you think that a nation cannot kill its way to peace, you are wrong. Nothing is more peaceful than a dead person. Dead people cannot start wars, and they cannot fight wars.
Unless that dead person happens to be your son or daughter or husband or mother. In which case, killing them for the sake of a political error is venal.
I served, proudly, for 4 years and 8 months. I enlisted voluntarily, there was no draft then. I expect no thanks nor gratitude, because the decision to serve was mine alone. All I want is a free country to live in.