"Veteran's Day should be an occasion for a national vow: no more war victims on the other side; no more veterans on our side." This concluding statement of Howard Zinn's article on Veteran's Day emphasizes ample cause on the negative outlook on a war holiday. Having a "Veteran's Day," in one perspective, is a day that honors the men and women (if there were any) for their hard work and dedication in serving their country. From another viewpoint, as taken by this article, a day, like "Veteran's Day," is "instead of an occasion for denouncing war, has become an occasion for bringing out flags, the uniforms, the martial music, the patriotic speeches reeking with hypocrisy." Most, if not all "American" holidays have drifted too far away from the meaning of the holiday or celebration in the first place. Christmas, for example, has become a time of Christmas tree purchasing, gift buying, Santa falling down the chimney and eating milk and cookies time of year. The biblical backbone for this holiday has almost come completely nonexistent. Easter, as another example of an Americanized occasion, has been overfilled with Sunday dresses, Easter egg hunts, baskets from the "Easter bunny", and egg coloring. Where did the meaning go in all of our holidays?
             It would not be a surprise to find that more bodies have been lost through war than by diseases and natural causes. Crime victims could even be added to that number and war casualties would still out number that combined number. Zinn mentions that veteran's service in the war has been used as a glorification of war instead of a time to look back and count the deaths and say, "Enough!" If war had really been done away with, renounced, millions, if not more, would have been saved in future (now past) wars.
             Unfortunately, in some respects, war is the last resort and is taken ONLY to help ...