A well-deserved lift for vets

Friday, November 25, 2011

On Veterans Day, fittingly, the new elevator at the Merrimack Veterans of Foreign Wars Post was dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

According to our story last week, the elevator will give veterans with limited mobility full access to the lower, main and upper levels of the VFW post, which has more than 200 members and associates.

The cost of the elevator was about $50,000, our story said, with much of it covered by contributions of labor and materials, and another $30,000 raised through fund-raising activities.

This was a great project that ended by providing a great service. As any veteran can tell you, but probably won’t, we have a tendency to ignore the men and women who served their country and we don’t pay any more attention to those veterans who were wounded or injured.

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.

But now and then, somebody remembers and when that somebody does, veterans can get a little boost. In this case, the boost will be literal: up, up and ... well, certainly not away, but at least to another floor.

We can’t say enough about the people who banded together – like a band of brothers and sisters, if you get the reference – to make this elevator a reality. The veterans have surely thanked them all numerous times because veterans, whose service doesn’t always receive the thanks it deserves, generally make sure that others get the praise they deserve.

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.