Dear Daughter

A big reason for Why our Lives are Great is due to our Veterans. It may sound like a cliché, but your father wants you to genuinely pause today, even if it’s just for a minute, and express some gratitude for all the veterans that have served and continue to serve our country. Think about what they do for us and what they have sacrificed? Whether or not you believe in some of the wars that America has fought or continues to fight, majority of veterans are people that love this country, what it stands for, and want to protect its people from harm. In this noble effort many are willing to voluntarily put their lives on the line. I can’t even imagine the struggle that a young parent serving must go through in balancing the unimaginable task of protecting this country so their children may have a safe place to grow up against the risk that those children may have to live without a parent.

Those that have served, those that are currently serving and their families are truly forgotten heroes. As a society and as individuals we rarely bestow upon them the amount of gratitude they truly deserve. Many have suffered unimaginable physical and psychological injuries we can’t fathom. They deserve our recognition, respect and support.

OK, getting political now. We have an appalling record as a nation in caring for our veterans. We’ve asked minorities like African or Japanese Americans to fight, only to deny them basic civil rights during and after they served. We failed to pay many veterans after fighting in World War I. We have denied veterans benefits or medical care for injuries because it would cost money. I hope your generation is kinder to those that protect you and I? It is our responsibility to pay our fair share of taxes and demand that our government use that money to tend to the people that cared enough to risk their lives, health, and emotional well being for us.

Dad

P.S. – you probably should learn a little about this American holiday and its history. If you got a few extra minutes read the info below that I swiped off a story by Katie Mettler

Veterans Day wasn’t always called Veterans Day. The original intent, established in the wake of World War I, was to celebrate world peace.

In 1918, at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, fighting between the Allied Forces and Germany stopped, putting an end to the bloodshed of World War I per the terms of an armistice agreement. On the one-year anniversary of the armistice agreement, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation commemorating Nov. 11 as Armistice Day. A day to be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory.  Then in 1926 Congress passed a resolution urging state governors to observe Armistice Day with “thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through goodwill and mutual understanding between nations” and Congress made it an official holiday in 1938.  However, America’s wars never ended, so in 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill changing the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day, a holiday to thank all who had served.