Veterans Day
Al vasquez
Opinion Journalist-www.thehispanicvoice.com
All too often, we forget freedom comes at a price. All too often we shrug our shoulders and let someone else assume the burden of protecting our nation. In America, it is the few who understand the notion of freedom. It is the few who raise their hand in ceremony and swear allegiance to the United States, it is the few who salute the flag with integrity and knowledge of the fact they served in the greatest armed forces of the world. For generations it has always been the few who serve their time in defense of the great majority.
Today we see the protest signs emblazoned with we are the 99%. It is indeed ironic to see no evidence of the 99% alongside the 1% rank and file in combat. Certainly there are the few who didn’t get it; the 10% our Marine Corps Drill Instructors warned us about. Realistically, there are those who enlist solely for the benefits never intending to actually lift arms in defense of the nation.
On November the 11th, the day after the 236 birthday of the Marine Corps, we celebrate Veterans Day made an official Federal Holiday in 1938 after 20 years of honoring our veterans on 11-11 called Armistice Day. Let us honor those men and women who have died, have served and still serve our nation in a higher calling than being President of the United States, the calling of “Patriot”. In a nation surpassing 350 million, there are today 23.2 million who can call themselves veterans. These are the real 6% of Americans. While marchers protest the military, clueless as to what would happen if we let our guard down, veterans must continue to stay focused on their mission. Protestors embed themselves with philosophical, socialistic agendas citing deprivation of the masses while we support 13% of our population with food stamps. This is not what we want in America but this is what we get when we lose sight of doing for ourselves, when we depend on government to feed us to house us, to cloth us to employ us. This is not the America veterans recall or fight for. But, this is the America we are becoming. Ironically, our military is being sent to bring once traditional American values to other lands.
On Veterans Day you will see the traditional ceremony of placing the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Let us hope the display opens us up for thoughts of our military men and women who have sacrificed their time and lives to make ours more significant.
Bless all those who have served. In today’s world, it seems hip to protest our great-grand parents for defending us in WWI, our grandparents for defending us in WWII, our fathers for doing their duty in Korea and Vietnam, our contemporaries for being in Iraq and Afghanistan. If it were not for these veterans, you may not be speaking English and you would certainly not be who you are, where you are and as free as you are to speak you minds. Remember, “We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion just as effectively as by bombs”.
God Bless America, God bless our Veterans and Semper-Fi.