Veteran’s Day:  Remembrance, Honor and Humble Gratitude

There are wars that must be fought.  History tells us that when tyranny arises it can only be quieted with force.  There have been righteous wars where the oppressed have been set free and satanic regimes have been defeated to stop their domination of the helpless.  Yes, there are wars that are inescapable. As unavoidable as they are, no one wants to send their sons and daughters into battle.  Yet, it seems that every generation requires it.  

War should never be glorified.  It reveals the lowest nature of humanity usually on the part of friend and foe.  I have spent time among those just returning from combat.  At the time I was in uniform as well, and so there was an atmosphere of safety and transparency among comrades, among brothers.  Talk of their experiences flowed freely.  I have heard of great bravery, valor and honor.  I have also heard stories that made me ashamed and sickened.  Yet, they were all experiences of our own soldiers during the terrible stress of war.  The civilian world is not without their shame either.  I have known people who became rich because of war and I have known those who buried their young son just weeks after sending him off to the same war.  War is a horrible, horrible thing.  It is evidence of the failure mankind.  If fighting is thrust upon us, then fight we must, but let us never celebrate it or glamorize events that still cause nightmares and trauma decades after the last shot was fired.  

On this Veteran's Day rather than celebrate, may be pause and honor those who have served and may we be thankful.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.

I join you in saluting and thanking our veterans for their service.  Above all, we thank those that have lost family members to war.  We are greatly indebted to their sacrifice.