Thankfulness, Gratitude

Posted on November 11, 2009
6 Comments

It is not uncommon to be emotionally unmoved by Veteran’s Day, especially if you or a loved one hasn’t served far from home and behind enemy lines.

And in some circles it is encouraged to see Veteran’s Day with a bit of scorn because of the political unpopularity of leaders behind recent wars.

A person who is willing to consider just two lines of thought will, most likely, see Veteran’s Day more positively.

First, ordinary people, like you and me, have been willing to lose their life so that truly wicked men and their countries would cease their blood-thirsty campaigns. Think here of Nazi Germany and the those who “stood the line” in the Cold War. These ordinary people were like policemen who would come between a woman and a rapist, or our children and a molester. They did what they did so that this country and all countries would be safer.

If Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia had succeeded, this world, and many good things we take for granted simply would not exist. If you doubt this, read the stories of Anne Frank and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Second, there are principles, like life, liberty, and the equality of all mankind that are worth standing up for. Things like tyranny, genocide, and oppression might sound like the distant themes of old books, but many men and women in our country served in our military to liberate people who knew these terms all too well.

Wars might seem awfully pragmatic from the outside looking in, but on second look they are about principles. Principles that are as high as human beings themselves.

Gratitude is good response to Veteran’s Day. Good men and good women did hard, noble, good things for our country and for other countries. May we not be unmoved. May we grow in our sense of thankfulness.

Thankfulness, Gratitude

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