Sarah Wrote That | anniversaries

The Eleventh Hour Of The Eleventh Day

In the United States we have Veteran’s rather than Armistice Day. According to Wikipedia:

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into “All” Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans.

(Emporia? Could Thomas Pynchon have made up a better name?). It’s a testament to the sentiments of the time—too easily simplified—that the merchants were in favor of closing their doors.

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11 Nov 2009 11:11

Who Did Tear Down That Wall?

Amazing stuff. Margaret Thatcher pleads with Gorbachev off the record to assist in keeping Germany divided—“You’ve got all those soldiers.” Brent Scowcroft muses that it might be better to keep two Germanys. Meanwhile Gorbachev was talking, apparently sincerely, about “our one European home,” and Shevardnadze said in a Politburo meeting that the Soviets should just tear down the wall themselves (he was ignored).