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November 11, 2003
Thoughts on Veterans Day
Today is Veterans Day - a day for us to honour and remember the many men and women who have been willing to risk their lives for the good of the country. Among Heathens, today (as at Memorial Day) we also give a special honour to the Einherjar - those warriors who have made that ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.
It would be easy to day to use the opportunity to go over all the different ways that the Bush administration is mistreating our veterans, but my heart's just not in it. Thinking about it makes me very angry, and the feeling I have today is one of gratitude and I don't want to taint it with my fury.
Instead, I just want to offer a very heartfelt "Thank you" to all the men and women who have served - or are currently serving - in the Armed Forces, and to the families of our past and current soldiers. Handling the work of war is dangerous, but necessary, and it is work that the people in my family have been unable to do for health reasons. Your willingness to face the risks involved in war is what allows the rest of us to have the lives here that we do, and regardless of whether I agree with the reasons for a war or not, you will always have my support.
I also heard about a situation in Colorado Springs that I found rather touching. Harbard, who belongs to one of the Heathen lists I'm on, had this to say about it:
Just as an aside, Colorado Springs had it's Veterans Day parade on Saturday, and this year's parade was specifically designated (with plenty of mediaIt is far beyond time for us to have recognized that the soldiers who went to Vietnam are deserving of our support and gratitude, just as the soldiers of other wars have been. The war itself may have been wrong, but that is not the fault of the men and women who went there to fight it on our behalf. I'm glad to see that at least one community is trying - even at this late date - to recognize that, and even more so to hear from a Vietnam vet that the gesture was appreciated. I can only hope that other such attempts to reach out and recognize the service of those soldiers can be made throughout the country.
coverage) as a very belated 'welcome home' for the veterans of Viet Nam -- the parade we never got. It touched a lot of us. The veterans of 'Nam are pretty much middle aged now (and many of us still bear the scars, both physical and emotional); it's so good to see that people remember, and are beginning to accept that while the reason for the war was dubious, what we
did there wasn't.
Lastly, for this message, at least, I want to offer a pointer to the Iraq Coalition Casualties list maintained by LunavilleThese men and women, killed in the war in Iraq, are the newest American Einherjar. I raise my horn to them and offer a sincere "Hail!"
Posted by thorswitch at November 11, 2003 04:46 AM
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