Source: Greg Engle: Bryan Adams- A Veterans Day Tribute: Tribute to All Men & Women Who’ve Defended America
I don’t want to say Veterans Days has more meaning today that it twenty years ago, because of course that isn’t true, but I do believe it does have more feeling and appreciation today than it did in lets say 1994-95. Because America has essentially been at war for good and bad for twenty years now. Starting in the Balkans in 1995 and really never leaving there for the rest of the decade to prevent ethnic-Bosniaks and ethnic-Albanians from being victims of an ethnic genocide from Serbians in the former Yugoslavia.
We go from the Balkans, to the Middle East, in the early 2000s and we’re still there fourteen years later in both Afghanistan and Iraq. So Americans I believe have felt Veterans Day and Memorial Day more often in the last twenty years, because almost all of us probably is related to a U.S. military veteran, or knows one. And probably knows someone whose died in combat, or suffered a major injury. Again so others wouldn’t have to do that and to protect innocent people oversees who the average American has never even heard of.
Veterans Day, is the last holiday you want run and dominated by pop culture celebrities. This is a day you don’t want people to take advantage of and use it to make it look like they stand with the troops and are cool. Veterans Days, is as real as a holiday as we have in this country. Arguably the most important day other than Independence Day and Memorial Day. These are truly American holidays that just don’t affect the people who’ve been willing to be severely injured and die so their fellow serviceman wouldn’t be hurt or killed, but to defend America’s freedom.
They haven’t fought for a prize, or to win free tickets to Disneyland, or Hawaii, but for their fellow serviceman and their country. So we wouldn’t have to fight for them. People who could have stayed home and made a lot of money in the private sector, but instead decided to put their lives on the line and risk never seeing their families again so others wouldn’t have to do that as well. Veterans Day, is as real as it gets. It just doesn’t affect our veterans, but their families as well. Their spouses, their kids, who perhaps have had to grow up without their fathers, or mothers and their parents. Why, because so others wouldn’t have to make those ultimate sacrifices as well.
So when you celebrate Veterans Day today and millions of us will all sorts of ways in America as well as oversees and you personally know a veteran, make sure you not only thank them, but make your thanks as real and as genuine as their service to their country and yours. Make sure you not only show appreciation to the veteran and veterans, but their families as well who’ve sacrificed almost as much as the veteran as well and in many cases never had a say in the matter. Thank them for giving you the opportunity just to celebrate Veterans Day and the millions of Americans who have fought for our great country so we could celebrate living in it.
The Daily Press 