Today is Veterans Day. It used to be called Armistice Day.
Here's the thumbnail background from History.com
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938.
In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.
As I've said many times before, The Great War wasn't called World War I until World War II. In 1918 we didn't know we were going to have to number world wars.
So, 98 years on where are we?
We have some Democrats - or at least young, left-leaning Americans - demonstrating in the streets against the outcome of the election. We have some Republicans - or at least far right, White Americans - threatening people who are not White Christians in the name of the outcome of the election.
Here's how the two major party candidates can make good use of Veterans' Day.
Hillary Clinton:
To those people who have been demonstrating against the results of last Tuesday's election, let me say I am at least as disappointed as you are. But the votes have been counted, the rules have been followed, and I came up short.
If you really support the American system, go ahead and demonstrate, but let's put a period on the end of the sentence. Let's make Saturday the last day of showing our displeasure.
Donald Trump will be our President. If nothing else, we owe him a chance to prove that he will be a good President, that he will do the positive things he promised during the campaign, and will prove that the heated campaign rhetoric was just that: campaign rhetoric.
Let's don't allow our basic American optimism to be crushed by the media's constant search for dramatic conflict. We should be interested in who the President-elect will nominate for important Cabinet and Sub-Cabinet jobs. We should be concerned about which legislation he will push for. We must continue to support laws, rules, and regulations that don't just protect the rights of the minority; but shines a light on the path to social and economic success for those who are struggling so hard.
We don't have to like the election results. I certainly don't. But, we do have to accept them. I certainly will.
--HRC
Donald Trump:
The election is behind us. President Barack Obama and I have met face-to-face for the first time in our lives. We had an excellent discussion. We shook hands. And, we pledged to have the kind of transition between our two Administrations that Americans have a right to expect and a right to see accomplished.
I want to focus these next few words on those who misunderstood my words and my meaning during the campaign. Anyone who is using the results of the election as an excuse or as a reason to intimidate others.
This is Veterans Day. Over the past 100 years, millions of American men and women have fought in trenches and on the fields of France, across the plains of Europe, in the jungles and deserts in places of danger throughout the world.
They fought, bled, and died to help protect the dream of freedom that America represents to the people who don't live in freedom around the world.
We cannot and will not tolerate a society in which one group thinks they can turn on another group without suffering consequences. We've been through that. We're beyond that.
On this Veterans Day we should remember that we are all Americans. Our goal is not to compete against one another for a job, but to build an economy that provides good jobs for everyone.
That's what I ran on. That's what I ran for.
--DJT
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