Friday, November 11, 2016

Thank You for Your Service

It’s Veteran’s Day and I’ve been pondering. There’s a journey that lies behind every veteran we meet. They’ve done something. They’ve been somewhere beyond themselves. At some point in their lives, they stepped forward to serve and we rightly honor them.

It’s Veteran’s Day and I’m glad it comes after the harrowing race for power we’ve just been through. It wasn’t the bad toupees and pantsuits that got to me. It was the years of politicians and pundits and radio entertainers telling people to embrace their anger and fear, telling them that anger and fear would give them strength. It’s the months of watching candidates expertly tap into that same toxic well, leaving us with a country on the edge and a populace that is both angry and fearful.

We have children chanting in school about building walls. Signs taped over water fountains, one labeled “Whites only.”  The twin parasites of anger and fear consume their hosts and spill into the streets, and this country that our veterans have sought to protect against external threat is in turmoil from the inside out.

My father was a veteran. He was a man of service. After he took off his last uniform, he continued serving until his last breath. Thinking of Dad, and Veteran’s Day, and the pain this country is in, I'm thinking there's something we can all do. 

Serve.

Let’s each find ways to go beyond ourselves. Let’s stop posting angry or fearful messages about those who are angry and fearful and instead reach out to them with peace, even if we have to do it five or ten or a thousand times.

Let’s take down the signs over water fountains, hug an immigrant and, if we must, teach children songs about purple dinosaurs again. Let’s honor our men and women in uniform by taking our own journey of service.

To those of you who now or once wore the uniform, I wish you a Happy Veteran’s Day.

And to all of you - thank you for serving.





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