There’s really only one thing: seek out a veteran – a neighbor, a co-worker, a family-member, even someone you run into on the street – take their hand and thank them for their service.
Now, this suggestion is hardly new. Indeed, it’s almost a cliché. But the problem with clichés is that they lose their meaning and their impact. When someone suggests that we find and thank a veteran on Saturday, it tends enter through one ear and exit through the other while we peruse newspaper circulars for great Veterans Day deals on cars and furniture.
Not this year.
There are more than 250,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines deployed overseas, many in Iraq and Afghanistan. The World War II generation – the men who overcame Germany and Japan – is slowly fading away.
Now is the time. Not just to think good thoughts and rely on whispered prayers. It’s time to reach out and say “thank you.” It’s time to get up and do something. It’s time to translate appreciation into action.
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