Veterans Day: Is it enough?
“What have you done for us lately?”
I don’t think the average American military veteran has the time or the temperament to spend 51 weeks a year asking such a question, but a reasonable person could hardly blame him if he did.
Veterans Day can be like Mother’s Day or Father’s Day: an occasion to heap praise upon individuals whom we spend the rest of the year ignoring, tolerating, or circumventing. A week’s worth of bumper stickers, newspaper interviews, special discounts and grade-school essays soon give way to the daily grind.
I don’t think our veterans are expecting a “We’re not worthy!” routine from civilians (as in Wayne and Garth kowtowing to Alice Cooper in “Wayne’s World”), but there are lots of little ways to show appreciation during the year.
Are you glad for the religious freedom we enjoy in this country? Don’t take it for granted. Go out and be the most gung-ho (insert your religious affiliation or non-affiliation here) you can be!
Are you grateful for freedom of speech and freedom of the press? Exercise those rights. Stay informed, and not just by surrounding yourself with “yes men” radio or TV commentators, bloggers, and columnists. Military service has opened up new horizons for millions of insulated kids over the years, and there’s no reason for civilians to box themselves in with dogma.
Glad you can vote? Be sure you register and actually show up on Election Day. (No excuses, such as TV’s Edith Bunker trying to defend husband Archie’s non-voting with the lame “I think he had to mail a letter once.”) Educate yourself and vote for solid, non-frivolous reasons.
Glad the nation as a whole isn’t speaking German or Japanese? Try speaking and writing English correctly.
Take five minutes to learn flag etiquette before displaying Old Glory.
Let the veterans in your family, workplace, or neighborhood know that they are always welcome to relate their wartime experiences — or not, depending on their situation.
Don’t practice knee-jerk reactions of any political stripe. Don’t callously advocate sending service people into harm’s way just because some foreign bureaucrat ticked you off. But neither should you cost us valuable time by unrealistically insisting that “Diplomacy always works.”
Hold your government’s feet to the fire when military personnel’s lives are on the line. Make sure our military has a clear mission, proper equipment, and a reasonable exit strategy.
Help the veterans in your life with a year-round project of scrapbooking, journaling, or connecting with old comrades.
Visit a Veterans Administration hospital and see what you can do to uplift the spirits of those who have sacrificed so much for their country.
If you see your children or grandchildren (or yourself) getting too wrapped up in desensitizing, violence-glorifying video games, ask a combat veteran to intervene and bring them down to earth.
Be wild and crazy and use Arbor Day or the Ides of March as excuses to donate a veterans-oriented book to the public library.
In the coming year, I hope we will be able to break the cycle of “feast or famine” for attention to veterans. I hope that the nation’s veterans can say of civilians, “All gave some.”
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
Articles related to “Veterans Day: Is it enough?”
Veterans’ charities that misled donors and tips to give wisely instead
