Mark’s Musings – November 13, 2019
Mark Fortune
Did you take the time to thank a veteran on Monday? Maybe you attended the ceremony at the Coshocton County court square? Veterans Day – originally called Armistice Day – was made a holiday by Congress in 1926. In 1938 it became an official holiday primarily to honor the veterans of World War I. Then came World War II and Korea – and on June 1, 1954 Congress, with the urging of veterans organizations – amended the commemoration by changing the word “Armistice Day” to “Veterans Day”. There is no apostrophe. Thank you Veterans.
There were other changes that came as well, including the date -which had it observed on the fourth Monday of October – but many states refused to change and after lots of confusion President Ford made the current Nov. 11 observance law on Sept. 20, 1975 which returned the observance to its rightful date of Nov. 11 starting in 1978.
There are still nearly 400,000 living veterans from World War II with over 300 of those passing away each day according to the Department of Veterans Affairs website. If you are close to a veteran or have one in your family, please take the time to record some of their memories if they are willing to share their story.
While the LSU Tigers are number one in the AP poll, the Buckeyes should remain in the number one spot for the college playoff -and Alabama is in the number four spot despite losing to LSU over the weekend. Is that where they should be? Minnesota jumped into the top ten, sitting at number seven with their decisive win over Penn State. The game for the Buckeyes that concerns me the most is with the Nittany Lions, not Michigan. The boys from the state to the east will want to be the spoiler.
The Browns got a nice win on Sunday, looking more like the team that we expected earlier in the season – this Thursday will be a test of the offense against the Steelers pretty darn good defense. It is not a good season to be a Bengals fan.
Congratulations to the Ridgewood Generals football team on their first round playoff win against Portsmouth on Saturday night. Up next is the Wheelersburg Pirates – and we have seen this play before as everyone knows. But the players and the script changes each year – and a neutral site in Lancaster is a good thing. Good Luck Ridgewood Generals!
Where were the voters? The percentage of registered voters that voted here in Coshocton County was pretty dismal – not even half of registered voters cast their ballots. There is really not much of an excuse anymore because they have made voting pretty convenient. We need to take this voting thing seriously before we wake up one day and someone, somewhere, has decided that just not enough people vote to represent the populace so perhaps Congress or some other body will just make the decision for us.
Remember the Veterans that we celebrated on Monday? These are the men and women that served our nation and made the sacrifices so that we can continue to have our freedoms. One way that we can truly honor our Veterans is by exercising our right to vote as given in several Amendments to the Constitution. Some research on these Amendments might prove educational to everyone.
Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion
