THE BIENVILLE PARISH LIBRARY HOSTS A VIRTUAL PATRIOTIC CELEBRATION – HONORING OUR VETERANS

Beginning on November 1st and running through the month of November, the Bienville Parish Library will share a two part YouTube link to our 2021 Virtual Patriotic Celebration – Honoring Our Veterans. “We’ll also be sharing the links with local churches, nursing homes, schools and other organizations,” says Jackie Cato, Adult Outreach Services Coordinator. “Since the beginning of COVID we have had to find other ways to celebrate our veterans and holidays with our most vulnerable patrons.”

“We are very appreciative of Ricky Davis, Antoine Hampton, Quincy Knox and Adrian Nelson who appeared courtesy of the Paradise Funeral Home,” Cato says, “We also thank Mr. Ronald Washington, founder and CEO of the Paradise Funeral Home, who graciously allowed his staff the time away from their duties to present our program this year.”

WHY NOVEMBER 11th

World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Palace of Versailles in France. An interesting fact: Several months before the treaty was signed, an “armistice” or an end to the fighting between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, or “Armistice Day” as it was called, is regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…” November 11th was a day observed with parades and public meetings and a close of businesses beginning at 11:00 a.m.

ARMISTICE DAY BECOMES VETERANS DAY!

1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day which not only preserved the historical significance of the date, but helped focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

“To all veterans, living and deceased, we thank you for your service and great sacrifice so that we can live in a free country. Cato concludes, “We are profoundly grateful and respectful of all you have done for our nation.”

“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.” — President Ronald Reagan 1983 radio address.

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