Most media outlets, whether print, online or broadcast, have something to say about Veterans Day because, well, it’s expected. It’s a traditional tip of the editorial hat, an obligation of the calendar that must be fulfilled, a noncontroversial topic that’s even more popular today than it was a decade or so ago.
Writers try to instill in their commentary the usual patriotic verbiage, something rousing even, to make their observations seem more powerful.
A good many of these editorials, however, aren’t read because they’re so predictable and are sometimes more of an exercise in writer self-glorification than they are an expression of gratitude to those who have served.
Wow, one might say, that’s an extremely cynical point of view. Maybe it is, but it’s because many of these editorialists and columnists, along with a good portion of the population, have no idea of what it means to be a veteran.
The short version is that a veteran is a person who turns his or her life over to the armed forces to do with it what it will. That could mean anything from service limited to typing requisitions, to trying to find another inch between yourself and the live round headed in your direction, or doing what you have to do to survive and living with those decisions afterward.
The point is a veteran is someone who has entrusted his or her future to someone else, and who has put self-interest aside to answer the call to duty.
That, in itself, is an act of courage that most people will not be able to grasp and is why honoring veterans one day a year is hardly enough.
Stories will be told, speeches will be made and bands will play on Veterans Day, but what about the next day and the day after that? What then? Thanks, see you next year?
Perhaps Veterans Day ceremonies make us feel better about ourselves, but what we ought to be doing is a better job of respecting and taking care of veterans every day. They did what they were asked to do, and that’s the least we can do for them.