286 My Message To A Vet – November 11, 2009

Since Woodrow Wilson declared this day Armistice Day in 1919, America has set this day aside for you – to remember your deeds of valor and dedication and, in many instances, ultimate sacrifice in a cause so noble that silence is the only deserving response – a pause in serene sanctified awe for the freedom that you did not give, but rather, preserved for us in our generation to embrace.  I thank you, brave souls, for whether the conflicts demanded your life or not, nevertheless your life was changed – altered from its original course in some way – a sacrificial benevolence knowing that the good of the many outweighed the safety of the few or the one.  I bless you for that giving heart that tore you from among the masses and exiled you in a foreign land isolated from all that you were there to protect – berated, cajoled, and spat upon, yet you held your station – you made certain that your vicarious hardship and suffering would insulate us from the same fate and offer to us, to me, a better life than would ever be afforded otherwise.  How can I repay such selfless ambition – how may I display my most sincere gratitude for your offerings?  I may only make certain that in the course of new outrage and formerly unknown atrocities, that I exert effort equaled only by that of you and your comrades to ascertain that you are never forgotten – that your investment of love for your country is never stained by the wicked undermining of ingrates that use the very freedoms you kept for them to tarnish the memories and, in some cases, even disavow the sustaining accomplishments themselves.  I, for one, shall never forget the liberties paid for in units of blood and body parts strewn across countless battlefields – I shall remind those in my inner circle of family and friends that there was an investment made in America by Americans – patriots who gave no thought to their own person but thought only of generations, living and yet unborn, who would live a better quality of life as free men than in bondage.  Today, I salute you!!!  I have not earned the right to do so – I am only empowered to do this by your generous gift, which is not taken for granted, at least by me.