Thanking Veterans For Their Service Every Day
By Bob Wagner, AAP Columnist
Every so often, something printed on a card or bumper sticker catches my eye and makes me smile. And ever so rarely, a saying makes me think. That happens less and less lately, as my arteries harden, and real thinking occurs only on really good days. My usual November thoughts live and die around pies of pumpkin, and turkeys roasted. But this little bumper sticker on the car in front of me the other day reminded me that Veterans Day also occurs in the month of the turkey.
The saying hails more from my dad’s war than mine, back in WWII, but it serves to focus attention on the sacrifices so many made:
“If you are reading this, thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English, thank a veteran.”
Short, bumper sized sayings are meant to be digested quickly, and maybe generate a smile or a thought. Then they are easily forgotten as pictures of pie and turkey and stuffing dance through our heads, overpowering all thought processes. I am more susceptible to this process than most, I readily admit. But that little saying has stayed in my brain longer than most of the other little thought provokers that show up on bumpers, in windows, and on t-shirts.
Our world was being attacked by forces intent on total domination. Our dads, uncles, aunts, friends, sons and daughters dropped everything in their lives to serve. They became warriors and went off to fight, maybe to die, to protect our way of life. Folks at home suffered some, and worried a lot, as daily life changed, until the last shot was fired. But our precious veterans, who gave up large chunks of their lives during the war, and received lifelong issues of physical and mental scars, came home to walk amongst us once again. Their lives were altered forever. Our lives were preserved forever.
Nothing I can put down on paper will ever do justice to those people. I lack the skill, the words. But like many of you, I feel it in my heart, every so often. Something simple, like that little saying, brings it out front, where I can see it, feel it.
Veterans Day should be every day. But life doesn’t work that way. Every little bit helps, though. As trite as saying “Thanks for your service” sounds, it is well received by vets young and old. Even if getting 10 percent off the bill at big box stores is a marketing ploy, it is taken, and appreciated by vets.
So, this Veterans Day, besides dusting off our own reasons for thanking a vet, talk to a child. Talk about why it is important to pass on the reasons for the appreciation. Remember the sacrifices; the lives lost, the loves lost, the postponing of jobs and school and family. Honor those who gave their lives for us, and have a good thought for all the others whose memories are still filled with the horror you were spared.
God bless them all. They are all deserving of our thanks, and our blessings.
Now go have that turkey and pie, and think a kind thought of me.
