Veterans day
...And so, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent and the Great War ended. This was supposed to be "the war to end all wars." The amount of carnage and death on each side was horrific to say the least, on a scale previously thought unthinkable.
Today is the day we remember our living veterans. If you know one, thank them for their service. They may have served in peacetime or wartime, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard. In any case, they willingly put their lives on the line so that others could enjoy the fruits of freedom.
When a veteran knows another veteran, there is an instant deep bond between them. They may refer to each other as Grunts, Squids, Zoomies or Jarheads, but these are affectionate terms for bonds of people who picked up a weapon and stood watch on that wall that separates us from our enemies. If you are not a veteran and you use those terms, well, let's just say you won't do it twice in front of a veteran.
I close this entry with this poem:
"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press."It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech."It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate."It is the soldier, who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag."
--Charles M. Province