On this day at 11 am, 102 years ago in 1918, World War I finally drew to a close.
The initial thought when the war started in July 1914 was that the young men on the front lines would win and be home by Christmas. Surviving troops wouldn't be back home for over four years.
In the 100+ years that have followed, the world has seen (in approximate order): the roaring 20s, women's suffrage, the rise of the Chinese communist party, the Great Depression, the election of FDR (commencing his reign as longest-serving American president), another World War (one that my own grandfather served in), the founding of NATO, the Civil Rights movement, the Cuban missile crisis, the first-ever moon landing, the rise of computers and technology (including our precious internet), the collapse of the Soviet Union, the International Space Station, 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the first Black President, coronavirus, and something good that happened more recently, the first female Vice President who also happens to both Black and of East Indian descent.
Basically, a whole lot of stuff has happened in the last century.
And that's not even all of it, those were just the highlights off a very, very (very) long list (one of many) that exists on the Internet.
But the big thing to take away is that so many of the things we take for granted, especially in the West, exist only because people before us have fought for freedom, at home and abroad.
To the men and women who have bravely fought abroad, to give others the right to partake in democracy, free speech, and a whole host of other rights we so often take for granted, thank you.
To those that lost their lives on battlefields far away, the sacrifice was not for nothing. These men and women remind us to feel proud that we live in a country with such freedoms while remembering that fear and oppression are very real, daily struggles that individuals around the world live with.
Lest we forget.
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