Should We Continue To Celebrate Veteran’s Day?

The Government of the United States declared that Veterans should be remembered and celebrated by their fellow countrymen on one specific day each year beginning on November 11, 1938. That is the year when that date became a federal (USA) holiday. The powers that be chose November 11th because the first world war ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year in 1918. I suppose that declaring that holiday in those dark days before the United States entered the second world war when most people favored isolationism was also a part of a faint hope that we would never have to again pay such a high price in terms of dead and wounded Americans to keep the world safe from tyranny. Sadly, Americans have had to endure many more wars and conflicts since that time. In each case we have had to offer up some of our best and brightest. As a result of those sacrifices we are still asked to remember our living and dead Veterans today, but I have to wonder why our government feels it proper to continue to ask us to celebrate Veteran’s Day while they consistently and purposely ignore the very group of people the holiday was intended to honor?

Today there are tens of thousands of Veterans who are homeless. According to the U.S. Government’s own statistics over 300,000 Veterans have died or become seriously ill while waiting for health care that has been promised, but not delivered by the Veteran’s Administration. Thousands more languish in prisons for offenses related to the fact that our government refused to treat them for mental illness that likely came about as a result of their service to our nation. Even now many Veterans have to beg a thankless and often confusing bureaucracy for services or benefits that they are told have already been promised to them. Such requests often end in a stalemate or denial. Those alleged services and benefits are empty promises that no one in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branches of the U.S. Government seem to be able to deliver. To make matters worse, every year more promises of reform or reorganization are made to our Veterans seeking help. Help still does not come or is simply delayed for an indeterminate period of time. And this is not about politics... No Democrat, Republican or Independent politician has been able to even scratch the surface of solving this problem.

Plaques, statues, memorials and parades are nice. Ceremonies and the display of national symbols like our flag are wonderful. But do any of these things really help our Veterans in need? The answer is obvious. It is time for all Americans to stand up and demand that our do nothing government begin to do something for the men and women who served them voluntarily or because of the draft which still existed in the Vietnam era. Call, write or email your congressional representatives and the White House to let them know that they should either begin to immediately help our Veterans in a proactive, serious and consistent way; or simply cancel Veteran’s Day so that the rest of us can sleep as soundly as they do without the annoyance of being reminded that people who fought so that we could have the freedoms we now enjoy without the guilt that comes from worrying about whether some Veteran needs food, shelter or medical help.




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