Thank You For Your Service

Thank You For Your Service
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 10, 2013

The more time I spend with veterans, the more they need to be reminded that no one wants them to "fit back in" to society. Sure they say they want to but when you dig deeper you'll understand that is really the last thing they want to do. Just noticing what happens on Veterans Day proves that as cities and towns across this country show up to honor the veterans from all wars marching through the streets as thousands stand in awe.

We know they are not like the rest of us and that is something we do appreciate. The rest of us, well, we go about our normal daily lives most of the time working or living right next to someone who is a part of our fabric held together by the fact they were willing to risk everything to retain as much as the Patriots were willing to risk everything to achieve it.

When we show up for moments out of our lives to honor them, we are not just telling them thank you for your service, but thanking them for not being like the rest of us. Considering less than 1% serve today and veterans are only 7% of the population, that makes them very rare.

Thank You For Your Service (A Moment of Truth) May 25, 2012

The Vietnam War marked a time of social unrest that divided our nation like never before. Service members returning home with physical and emotional scars were greeted with an unprecedented level of disrespect and dishonor. The courage and sacrifice of our veterans cannot be overstated. When you encounter them, thank them for their service. You never know how powerful those words may be. Find your moment at www.Moments.org.

This is a quote we see attributed to George Washington.

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.

It appeared in 1999 according to Boston 1775 but it has become a rallying cry to treat veterans differently because they are different. (I still use it even though no one really knows who wrote it)

There are other quotes by President Lincoln about the price paid by those who stand in our name.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (Gettysburg Address)

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. (President Lincoln Second Inaugural Address)

This weekend we show them how much we appreciate how different they are from the rest of us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they knew it everyday?