Thank you to Mike Fink

Thank you, Mike Fink, for your thoughtful comments about World War I and Armistice Day (or Remembrance Day, as the British Commonwealth terms it).

For the 25 years I taught at community colleges, every year I gave a lesson on WWI, hoping that the students would understand the extent of senseless slaughter endured in "the war to end wars." Even before the advent of modern warfare, this war resulted in the death of 1,700,000 French, 1,000,000 British, and 117,500 US citizens and soldiers. Memorial Day used to be the day the US remembered the dead of the Civil War and Armistice Day the day of mourning for the dead of WWI. It is a sad commentary that a hundred years later we've given up trying to catch up with wars. I always told my students that I didn't know what to do about this situation except to ask them to remember that at one time people really believed that the slaughter of the Great War was such that no one would ever start another war.


Jane Arnold

Providence, RI