It's Veteran's Day. I shouldn't have to tell people that, but yesterday at school all the law students who are in the military wore their uniforms and some girl in one of my classes goes "God, why are they all wearing their uniforms?" So, I butted in and said "Tomorrow is Veteran's Day." Her response? "Oh, really?" Yes, really. That is why you're getting the day off school. I suppose it's too much to ask to actually wonder WHY there's no classes and the Post Office is closed??
Anyway, if you know a veteran, I vote that you take some time to tell them "Thanks." Thanks for volunteering to serve their country, thanks for protecting our collective freedom, thanks for making it possible to write anything we want in our blogs and to stand on street corners and protest the war (if that's your thing). Thanks for serving with honor and selflessness in the face of knowing they might die to preserve the values and privileges we enjoy in this country.
This picture is of the Vietnam Women's Memorial. I cry every time I see it in person, and it hits very close to home because the woman that is looking up is waiting for a rescue helicopter to come and pick them up (the website suggests she might be looking up for a higher power, but, from what I've heard, in Vietnam the rescue helicopters WERE a higher power, so I'm going with my interpretation), and that's what my dad did in Vietnam (and for 30 years after). The motto of Air Rescue is "That Others May Live" and I think that the idea of "service before self" is what sets the military and those who serve apart from everyone else.
*Adlai Stevenson
