See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Joanna DelBuono
Brooklyn Daily
Veterans Day, created on Nov. 11, 1919 to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War I, was originally called Armistice Day. In 1926 Congress passed the resolution for the day to be a day of annual observance, and in 1938 Nov. 11 officially became a national holiday.
For a long while afterward, all across America, the day celebrated veterans, living or dead, with parades, visiting with vets, and paying homage to the people that gave the ultimate sacrifice.
Somewhere between then and now, as with all our holidays, Veterans Day has transformed into a day of big sales, 50 percent off, and the ubiquitous buy-one-get-one-frees, with the focus on our veterans receding further and further from the purpose of the day.
According to the 2012 Census, of the more than 21.2-million military veterans in the United States, 1.6 million are female, 11.3 percent are black, 5.7 percent are Hispanic, 1.3 percent Asian, .8 percent American Indian or Native Alaskan, 0.2 percent Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and 79.6 percent white.
That’s a lot of men and women to honor, and yet the most that this country can come up with is buy-one-get-one-free, with some stores giving discounts to our veterans on goods, services and meals. Whoopee.
Non-essential employees are given the day off to honor the day. Essential personnel including fire, police, transit, and medical personnel work the day, and according to individual union regulations or contract negotiations earn a “floating holiday” in exchange.
The funny thing is that active service members, those vets to be, don’t get holiday pay, or receive floating holidays. Apparently, protecting our rights 365 days a year, 24-7 yields no extras.
So my question is, what happens to all those proceeds from all those buy-one-get-ones out there? Do the major corporations take the net profits and donate all or any to the Veterans Groups across the country? Do the major corporations make sure that there will be jobs waiting for when our active service members come home and become Vets? And what about our veteran’s hospitals? Do they benefit from all those 50 percent off, one-day sales?
Now, I know that all these companies need to increase their bottom line, however you would think that for at least one day the bottom line be suspended and profits benefit those that the holiday was actually created for.
Not for Nuthin, I think America needs to change its priorities. Veterans Day should be for veterans, not sales. Thanksgiving Day should be for giving thanks, and not the start of holiday shopping. On Memorial Day, we should honor those active military members and not just have parties on three-day weekends, complete with charred meat and bacchanalia.
The same goes for Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, and Passover. We can all use a little suspension of greed and shopping on those special days.
Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.