Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Well, another Veterans Day has come and gone and on Nove. 11, in what our story last week called “a propitious calendar day,” we honored the men and women who served their country.

And we’ll honor them again on Memorial Day.

Between those two days, we will likely pay them little mind, unless one happens to be our father or our mother, our uncle or aunt, or brother, sister or cousin.

But if we don’t actually know a veteran? What is there to think about?

We, as a people, have convenient memories: When we don’t need you, we conveniently tend to forget what it was you did for us when we did need you.

You know Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “Tommy,” which explains how the British people paid, and pay, little heed to their veterans, or their serving military, until they were needed. What? The Boer War is over? Well there, soldier, back to the barracks and shine your shoes, or whatever it is you do.

What? The Huns are on the march again? For the love of God, soldier, risk your life to save us.

America had no Kipling, unfortunately, but we can extrapolate: What Kipling had to say about the British people can serve as our legacy, too.

As Veterans Day approached this year, we saw all around the region signs on businesses saying things like “Thank You, Veterans,” or asking the rest of us to “Thank a Veteran,” and that’s nice. But the best way we can thank the men and women who served is to make sure that, as a nation, we guarantee them proper health care, proper psychological care, and to make sure they all have a place to live.

That’s the kind of thank you they deserve.