Why do we need a special day to honor our veterans? Without those veterans, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, at least not in English. We wouldn’t even be able to push 1 for English or 2 for something else because all there would be is something else.

Durant celebrated Veterans Day with a downtown parade Wednesday. The turnout wasn’t what we would have liked, but 9:30 on a Wednesday morning makes it difficult for lots of folks to attend.

VETERANS DAY started as Armistice Day.

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.”

It was commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year and November 11 became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. Following World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.

AS I RECALL, we won World War II and I can’t understand how we accomplished that feat.

Our troops didn’t have cell phones, Facebook or Twitter. How the heck did those folks communicate? I mean, it’s fairly important to know where the good guys are so other good guys don’t shoot them.

Somehow, those troops managed without all of the electronics. Do you believe for one minute we could do something like that today? If all cell phones were deactivated simultaneously, the world as we know it would most likely end.

AS MIGHT BE expected, our Veterans Day Parade featured some older folks. We had the old hospital bed and the horse-drawn funeral coach.

Nobody spit on the veterans who came back from “the Great War.” Check with the vets of some of our other “wars” since that time. Going to war now is more of a manufactured sound bite for TV.

It’s sadly obvious we have no intention of going to war to win. We go to war so we can have meetings and work out an “exit strategy.” If our country goes to war, any person mentioning an exit strategy should be boiled in oil and used to patch pot holes in the streets.

If we go to war for any reason, the focus should be on winning the war. Period. Lives are precious and we’re losing them so big goverment and high-level politicians can have bragging rights. That should be a crime punishable by death with no appeal. Winning the war is the perfect exit strategy.

WE SHOULD LET a half-dozen World War II vets run the country for a week or two.

Those folks are allergic to bullsense and could get some things done.

Actually, we get some things done now. What I meant was get some things done that actually make sense for America.