America the Beautiful

 

Veterans Day Celebrated

 

US involved military conflicts since 1940:

1. World War II (1940-1945)
2. Korean War (1950-1953)
3. Vietnam War (1961-1975):
4. Operation Urgent Fury-Grenada (1983)
5. Operation Just Cause-Panama (1989)
6. Operation Desert Storm-Iraq (January and Febuary 1991)
7. Operation Restore Hope-Somalia (1993)
8. Operations in Europe-Bosnia (1990's)
9. Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan (2001-present)
10. Operation Iraqi Freedom-Iraq (2003-present)

 

America has been at war, in some capacity, every decade since the 1940’s and throughout those 70 years, American leaders have asked young men and women to lay their lives down for their country to which a grateful nation pays very little when these disabled veterans return home.  It is not just their bodies that have been damaged by the “horrors of war,” but their minds, hearts, and souls.

We should treat them all just as well as we do our elected officials or our movie stars, athletes, and musicians; and yet, we do not because most of us, apparently, take OUR FREEDOMS for granted and if that is not true, then what causes us to basically turn our backs on these returning veterans?

But, it is not just American Veterans that come home damaged by the ravages of war, but veterans from the other side as well who also have parents, wives, children, and siblings; so, do we not care about the whole of humanity either?

We seem to be a very aggressive nation, not just in the way we protect our boarders overseas, but in the way we live our daily lives at home. 

• We can see this aggression in the way we execute our professional sports and all sports for that matter since winning is the only prize that matters. 
• We see it in the way we manage our companies and go after our competition as if we were on the battlefield. 
• We see it in the way brokers manage real estate or family finances. 
• And, more importantly, we see it in the way our two political parties do battle during a re-election campaign, or may the best man lose because we take a more aggressive stand with our money.

REGARDLESS of these truths, we still must be mindful of our Veterans and the price they paid or continue to pay for our FREEDOMS . . .