Armistice, It's Veterans Day
This column was written by CBS News Early Show Co-Anchor Harry Smith.
It's Veterans Day.
Once upon a time we called it Armistice Day; remember the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month?
It marked the end of World War One, the war to end all wars. Today I wore a poppy in my lapel on TV.
I remember as a kid buying poppies from the American Legion guys on the street corner.
We all bought them.
The poppy came from the famous poem, written by Lt. Colonel John McCrae after a terrible battle in 1915:
"In Flanders field the poppies grow
Between the crosses
Row on Row"Across the U.K. and Canada, November is remembrance month. Looking at pictures in London this week, you wouldn't catch an MP without a poppy.
Which shows people can disagree about war, its motives, its methods; but they can be united in respect, for those who serve.