I wanted to wait to publish this until after it became November 11th in Arizona, USA, the place of my birth. I'm always 15 hours ahead of Arizona here in the Philippines, on the other side of the world. China, Japan and other Asian countries are literally at my back door.
As a military retiree and a veteran of foreign wars myself, I appreciate everything that those that went before me and those that followed after me have achieved. I'm not spouting any rhetoric about right or wrong; I'm simply remembering those that deserve to be remembered. November 11th is Veterans Day in the US and it's also Remembrance Day in Canada (also Australia and the UK), a fact I wasn't quite aware of until reading about the two minutes to remember.
My article about old habits dying hard was strangely appropriate for this time of year, albeit subconsciously. November 10th, the day before Veterans Day, is the birthday of the US Marine Corps. I am a retired US Marine, so both the birthday and Veterans Day are easy to remember.
Politicians don't seem to appreciate veterans the way "normal" people do and often use the day to publicize their propaganda. It's one of the reasons I think all veterans should invest in two or more of these:
I like the picture!
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[...] of silence at 11:00am, which should be about 3 minutes from the time that this post appears. For all who live in a country that respects their Veterans and War Dead on Nov 11, please join me. Related [...]