I'm just curious, because, for a Federal holiday, if I had to guess, I'd say that the majority of people actually celebrating -- meaning, giving honor to, paying respects to -- Veterans' Day were veterans themselves, veterans' families, and a very few interested others. Everyone I talked to yesterday was at work - no holiday at all - and when I went to the supermarket later in the day, was surprised to see the Wells Fargo branch at the supermarket was open, with a long line of customers. "We're open on Veterans' Day!" their printed sign proclaimed enthusiastically, as though we'd all really be cheered to know that honor was being ignored in favor of convenience and commerce. I, for one, wasn't that happy to see that. To me, it just underscored the point that too few Americans are affected by this war, who don't personally have some skin in the game. And that's not good, or right, AND it doesn't auger well for the future of veterans issues. Issues that affect veterans directly affect all of us, as a society, and most of all, show our ability and capacity to care. If what Paul Reickhoff says in this interview with MTV is true, and fewer than 1% of Americans are "suiting up" for this particular "game" -- the wars we're involved in, in Iraq and Afghanistan -- it's even more evidence of how veterans and their issues are getting marginalized. Not good. Veterans' Day -- and veterans issues -- aren't meant to be some insular, "you had to be there to get it" type of thing, affecting only the few, the proud, the actual deployed military They'll always mean more, or mean differently, to those who served, but they are fundamentally, and foundationally, important to us all. Or ought to be.
[What did I personally do/the results of the Hyprocrisy Check(TM): I took time out to thank the veterans I personally knew; and the vet supporters, because their work counts as well; I wrote some more on the topic; read some articles about veterans issues, joined a live chat with a reporter who'd recently covered veterans issues about his coverage of same; and talked with a friend whose husband is getting ready to deploy again; then finished out the night watching some videos from his time in Iraq. Not much, maybe, but way more than lip service. If it's graded pass-fail, I'll give that a pass :-)]
