Veterans Day Parade will not be held this year
This is Nov. 11, 2020.
It’s Veterans Day.
I really hoped I would find something profound to say —to write — something to let those who have served, and those who serve, know how much our country appreciates them.
How much I appreciate them.
How honored I have been to get to know the many veterans I have. How honored I am to have the many veterans in my family.
But ... What can anyone really say?
“Thank you,” is so impersonal ... I tell the clerk at the store, “Thank you” all the time.
Not that the clerk doesn’t deserve it, but ...
How can we thank these people who traveled to foriegn shores for our country?
I am not a veteran of any military service.
And that’s what it takes, doesn’t it? It takes service. It takes sacrifice. It takes something — a little feeling of pride for having done your part for this great country — to be included in that exclusive club.
Veterans seem to have a deeper appreciation for what this country stands for.
Veterans seem to “get it.”
I’ve been called out for my own worldviews by veterans and I have always listened. Doesn’t mean they changed my mind about things, but I have listened.
I didn’t argue, I didn’t lash out with some kind of right- or left-wing rhetoric against what these men and women believe to be true.
I listened.
If nothing else, these men and women should have a voice, should have an opinion.
More so than I do.
More so than most of us, actually.
Even more so than television “news” hosts, who serve their country less than a cup of lukewarm yogurt.
I always like it when I’m talking to a veteran and tell a joke and they laugh.
Kinda dumb, huh?
But my way of thinking is that I get so much laughter from life — mostly at myself — and so much joy and it’s because I am a citizen of the greatest nation on this planet.
And the reason I’m a citizen of the greatest nation on this planet is because veterans have kept it that way.
It helps that I was born here.
If I hadn’t been born here, I would try my hardest try to get here.
OK, I’m starting to ramble.
So, thank you.
Thank you for your service. Thank you for “getting it.”