Revisiting "Liberty"

In honor of Armistice Day

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 an armistice was signed to signify the end of the First World War. It was the feast of Saint Martin of Tours, the soldier of ancient Rome who laid down his arms and became a Christian bishop, one of the most beloved in all the nations of western Europe. The signers of the armistice knew that, and they intended it to be so, though now the association is largely forgotten, as so much else is. Formerly called Armistice Day, the 11th of November is now celebrated as Veterans’ Day in the United States and as Remembrance Day and in Canada and Great Britain, and in the United States at least, it seems to have lost its connection with the Great War. Has it lost also its connection with LIBERTY? Let it not be so!

Armistice Day Paris 1918 by Frank Myers Boggs. Public Domain.

But 100 years after the first Armistice Day, what does that word even mean to us?  Most Americans will say that you have liberty if you’re permitte…