TYFYS

A wondrous thing happened about a week or two after the terror attacks of 9/11: people got together and they said, at least for a little while, "I care about what happens to you, how can I help?" It was so great. I went into a grocery store and everyone inside had stopped shopping, stopped checking groceries, and had started singing "America The Beautiful."

Some time removed from that day, many people who see Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, or Coast Guards in uniform (and when they recognize them out of uniform) will extend the hand or at the least stand up and -fulfill what I have come to think of as a patriotic duty- say "thank you for your service." It is a short statement of gratitude. It is certainly heartfelt in many cases. But that's usually where it stops.

Our military doesn't suffer the shameful treatment it received mere decades ago. We don't have as many nutjobs screaming in their faces or protesting at their funerals. But our military hasn't had a pay raise in a while. Their set pay was structured around the understanding of the 2% inflation every year, so every year they would get a 2% increase in pay. That hasn't been happening.

Additionally, our vets are some of the bravest men and women in the world. They come back from having faced real-life tragedy, the very real threat of death at the hands of the enemy, and having been on both sides of terrifying violence. I have seen men who have lost limbs. I have seen men whose burns were so severe that even after plastic surgery, they didn't look anything like what their family remembered. Men and women with shrapnel stuck in their body after years, in some cases decades because the danger of crippling or killing is too high to risk removing it.

It's nice to hear "thank you for your service" it really is. It would be even nicer if when it came time to vote for our elected officials at all levels, we could have leaders who make and keep commitments to these warriors. A lot of people miss the point. They think it's about the pay check or the GI Bill. Don't get me wrong, those are nice things that make a sometimes unbearable task seem palatable, but the real reason we do it is love. Love for the man or the woman on our left and our right. We do it so that we can keep war from ever darkening our doorway again.

Or as it is put so beautifully in the Star-Spangled Banner,

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

God bless us all. We need Him. May we open our hearts to Him!