America Without Her Soldiers

I'm sharing something I've offered before on this date and in this place and thank you in advance for your kind indulgence. Today is Veterans Day which began as Armistice Day, marking the end of "The War to End All Wars" now known as World War One, because obviously and sadly it failed to achieve its goal, thus the numerical suffix. 

For most of the thirty-five nations, it lasted from 1914 to 1918; we here in the United States didn't become a combatant until 1917 but then made up with a ferocity of engagement what we had lacked in the length of deployment.

I strongly believe there’s a relationship between Election Day, last Tuesday, and Veterans Day, today, and always has been. Without the latter, I’m not sure if we even have the former. I’m always impressed by how much veterans have in common despite differences in age, sex, ethnicity, religion, or political beliefs. Our composition quite frankly very much reflects the nation which our service in uniform helped create and helps protect. Too often we lose sight of that. 

There are many observances across the country today. And like ours, sponsored by the Norwich Area Veterans Council this morning at eleven complete with all COVID protocols (to include face masks and social distancing), at the Richard E. Hourigan VFW Post 594 in the Norwich Business Park, the ceremonies are usually understated with little pomp and circumstance as is probably most befitting to celebrate a common and shared national experience.

The estimated population of our country is a shade over 331 million people with about 18 million veterans among us proving yet again it takes every kind of people to make a nation and to serve in uniform.

Today is NOT Memorial Day. We honor all who serve and served in our nation's armed forces, living and deceased. As we move farther away historically if not emotionally from the tragedy, trauma, and subsequent events and the consequences of the 9/11 attacks, the size and composition of our veteran population, and the concomitant need and necessity to take care of all those wounded in body and/or spirit, will continue to grow.

Veterans Day in many ways has become our Day of National Remembrance and Recognition of all the characteristics, embodied by those who serve as well as those who wait for those who serve, which allow us to remain among the freest nations in the world. 

I'm old now but I can remember the boy I was who listened to a Navy veteran of the War in the Pacific during World War Two, just elected President of the United States, who urged us to "....pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Service to others, like any other habit, becomes second-nature when performed often enough. Last week's election should continue, expand, and extend conversations about what’s in need of repair from sea to shining sea. Today should remind us of all that is right with our country, and with one another.
-bill kenny