The same man who once said, “We are against war because it is destructive. We are for peace because it is constructive” also said, “It is to the spirit of those men, exhibited in all our wars, to the spirit that places the devotion to freedom and truth above the devotion to life, that the nation pays its ever enduring mark of reverence and respect. It is not that principle that leads to conflict but to tranquillity. It is not that principle which is the cause of war but the only foundation for an enduring peace. There can be no peace with the forces of evil. Peace comes only through the establishment of the supremacy of the forces of good. That way lies only through sacrifice. It was that the people of our country might live in a knowledge of the truth that these, our countrymen, are dead.” To all who have proven the supreme majesty of sacrifice, we (and Mr. Coolidge), thank you.
Tomorrow will mark not only the Armistice declared at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 (which ended four years of staggering loss and destruction inflicted by the First World War) but it also sets aside a day of honor to all of America’s veterans. President Coolidge, looking back in November 1928 over the first ten years following the return of peace, turned his attention to those who had left the safety of their homes and freedoms years before to risk all on the battlefields of Europe. He spoke, “Our first thought…is to acknowledge the obligation which the Nation owes to those who served in our forces afloat and ashore, which contributed the indispensable factor to the final victory. Although all our people became engaged in this conflict, some in furnishing money, some in producing food and clothing, some in making munitions, some in…
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The Importance of the Obvious 