Editorial: In service and honor of veterans
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On Armed Forces Day, we honor those who serve.
On Memorial Day, we honor those who fell.
And on Veterans Day, we honor those who wore the uniform, gave their service and came home.
We honor them because they honored us all by stepping up. We honor the sacrifice they were prepared to make. We honor the burden they carried.
“To us in America, the reflections of (this day) will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism … and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations,” President Woodrow Wilson said in 1919 as he signed the proclamation for what would become Veterans Day.
That means the greatest honor we can give our veterans is to be worthy of the service they gave.
We can stand up for freedom in every corner of the world, as they did.
We can do what is hard, no matter how it tears at our hearts, as they did.
We can stand stalwart in the face of opposition. We can step forward to advance against injustice. We can put others before ourselves.
We can treat our veterans with the dignity they have earned. We can fulfill the promises we have made to them.
We can remember them — remember that there are still those who feel the pain of their duty, whether from wounds they sustained or from actions they can never escape. We can make supporting our veterans more than lip service. We can demand it be a priority.
“This day has an important dual significance in that it gives each one of us an opportunity both to honor the dedicated men and women of all races and religious beliefs who have honorably served in our armed forces in time of war, and to reemphasize our determination to achieve world peace with patience, perseverance and courage.”
— President John F. Kennedy, Nov. 11, 1963