'I am a veteran': Thoughts on Veterans Day
I am Valley Forge. You can mark me by the bloody footprints, mixed with mud and frozen snow, that traversed my ground that winter of 1777-78. Almost too much for any human to endure — yet most of the ill, hungry soldiers stayed on and kept training because the fight for liberty was worth it. Approximately 2,000 of them were buried in shallow graves scratched out in my hard ground.
I am Nathan Hale, accused by the British of spying. As the hangman waited to take my life, these were my last words: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
I am Thomas Jefferson, who made a significant change in the wording of the Declaration of Independence, changing the words “life, liberty and property” to describe the inalienable rights of all people as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
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I am Abraham Lincoln, who struggled with the seemingly incompatible views of saving the union from Civil War and ending slavery. I stated in an editorial in 1862 that “I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” I finally reached the inescapable conclusion there could be no middle ground between union and slavery. The second must be abolished — even at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives in Civil War — in order for the union to survive. I had to grow too, to understand the magnitude of the national sin of slavery. I found my voice in part of the Gettysburg Address to honor fallen soldiers: “ … that we here highlight resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom …”
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I am a World War II soldier shivering and harassed by Germany’s attempt in the winter of 1944 to use a tremendous fleet of tanks to turn the tide of the war — and I held firm and brought the forces of the evil dictator to their knees.
I am members of the liberation forces of World War II who broke down the gates of the concentration camps and who vomited in the unspeakable sight of thousands of butchered, naked malnourished bodies heaped on the ground like piles of autumn leaves, killed because of fanatical hatred of Hitler and his gangsters. They tortured and butchered millions of peoples because they were Jews or unbending Christians or Eastern Europeans or dissenters. Had it not been me, then who would have saved the world from the dark stain of absolutism and more murders?
I am one of the fallen American troops honored with the observation that: “For your tomorrows these gave their today.”
I am a Veteran — whether I died or survived, I bravely filled the ranks on the front line of freedom’s defense against those who would destroy liberty and lay waste to all human rights and prosperity to fulfill their power lust.
I stood up to carry on the fight as best I could, even though memories of home, loved ones and the peaceful life filled my weary mind. My stout heart believed freedom was worth the sacrifice. I am a Veteran.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Thoughts on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11
