Thursday, November 12, 2009

Veterans


Kathryn Jones, Ken Jones, Helen Trenchard (World War II Photo)

Two minutes of silence at The Eleventh Hour of The Eleventh Day of The Eleventh Month is set aside each year to honor veterans. Armistice Day, Remembrance Day or Veterans Day has been marked since 1918 as tribute to those who have served our country in the armed forces. Those men and women, as well as their families, have sacrificed more than most of us can imagine. They have given up personal pleasure and comfort for their principles. They have treasured the freedoms promised by our Constitution and Bill of Rights. They have loved their country. It is our duty to repay their gift of sacrifice with our material thanks. We need to say it and show it. Not just with words and parades but with meaningful health benefits and a GI bill that will pave the way for their futures. We owe them this and more.

We often forget the trials that are endured by the families. My Dad was in The Navy stationed in the South Pacific during WWII. Mom and my brother, Jack, followed him stateside from base to base in New York and Florida until he was finally deployed. Then they waited and worried...never even knowing where he was located. They participated in drives for the war effort, planted victory gardens, blacked out lights and listened to the news every day. The black car that carried an officer and chaplain never came to our house at 18 W. Winter in Danville, Illinois. My grandmother's two star Mother's Flag never had a star change to gold (representing a son that was killed in action). My uncle's aircraft carrier was bombed and sank but he survived. Dad and Uncle Bob came home in one piece. None of them talked about it much afterwards.

Life went on for my parents and brother. It went on with a GI bill that paid for colleges, housing opportunities and grateful employers that were ready to hire. The nation pulled together to show its never-ending thanks. We need to restore this kind of offering to our veterans today. It is up to us to write our congressional representatives and senators. We must demand a VA and benefit package of which we can be proud. It is what we can do to participate in their sacrifice.