Eleventh hour – Eleventh Day – Eleventh year
November 11, 2011 (Friday)
You should write a check today, because it will be the one opportunity of your lifetime to write, “11-11-11” as the date. You could write a letter today, at 11:00 a.m., and under the date include the time of day. Save a copy of it for your descendants to see in the coming years.
Veteran’s groups consider 11:00 a.m. on November 11 a sacred moment every year. It is the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the anniversary of the Armistice which ended World War I, “the Great War,” “the war to end all wars.” Representatives from the nations signed the agreement November 11, 1918, at 5:10 a.m. and the message was then telegraphed to all military forces that hostilities would end at 11:00 a.m. (The war formally ended the following June with the Treaty of Versailles).
Since that day, the United States has observed its anniversary every year. For many years, it was known as “Armistice Day.” Then it became “Veteran’s Day,” and a grateful nation honors veterans from all branches of the armed services on this day. It has become a day much like “Memorial Day,” at the end of May, honoring those who have given their lives in the cause of freedom.
In signing a declaration in April, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson said the nation was entering a “war to make the world safe for democracy.” Nineteen months later, the war ended, but that was not the final war for our country. Sadly, they keep coming, one after the other, many much longer than 19 months.
