PrintNovember 11, 2007
A Veterans Day Meditation
Another year has passed, yet despite the continual political posturing, anti-war rhetoric, and deliberate ignoring of increasing successes in Iraq, meaningful Veterans Day celebrations will be held in cities and towns all across America to honor veterans of wars past and present.
As a proud American, I will join others in a Veterans Day celebration today, Sunday November 11, up on the Village Green in my home town of Lake Bluff, IL. Participants from the Great Lakes Naval Station, located a mile or so up the road from my home, will once again contribute much to the loftiness and patriotic spirit of the occasion, as they have in years gone by.
In retrospect, never was so much owed to veterans by society, although fewer than ten percent of Americans can claim the title of "veteran." American forces have liberated millions of people held hostage by history's evil tyrants. It should therefore come as no surprise that the American GI is accorded time and again the honor of "most respected" in public opinion polls and surveys, or that a national day has been set aside to pay tribune to all veterans throughout this nation's history.
While I stand in reverence on Veterans Day honoring this nation's veterans both past and present, my thoughts will surely turn to America's future. War will certainly be a part of it. Most likely I will reflect upon the prophetic words of Thomas Paine written during the Revolutionary war in 1776:
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
I am certain there will always be men and women willing to serve a cause greater than themselves to keep this nation strong, free and vibrant. My concern is that too many Americans have become "sunshine patriots," that they lack the patience and the determination to win present and future battles during difficult times.
Veterans have fought courageously in past battles, as our troops are now doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only by letting America's future veterans complete their missions successfully can we honor them and our past veterans. Today's soldiers hold the future of this nation in their hands. We must not fail them, lest this nation's grand experiment in democracy be doomed to failure.
May voices of praise ring loud and true across this great land, as Americans pay homage to its veterans on this Veterans Day Weekend, 2007.
