Veterans day…everyday…any day
beingzoe 5 months ago // Military Life Gibber-gabber

While this is not posted on or even near Veteran’s day, sometimes information just comes to you and you want to share it.

We don’t often think about the history of our holidays. Today I stumbled on an informative article at about.com:Us Military entitled, Honoring All Who Served by Rod Powers.

In it, as well as giving a nice descriptive history of the holiday, he discusses a common misconception that Veteran’s day is set aside to honor fallen American soldiers. When in reality Memorial day is the day the United States has set aside to honor those who died in war.

To those of you in the military this is probably not news. However, to a civilian such as myself it might be. Veteran’s day is a chance to honor and recognize ALL veterans. Especially now in these confusing times of wars on terrorism, and the seeming political divide, it is vital that we all take a moment to recognize that whether you support every military action taken by this country, there are nonetheless thousands upon thousands of men and women around the world, fighting for a belief larger than any one campaign or military operation.

Veterans, especially in our all volunteer military, have chosen to defend, and yes sometimes even attack, based on an underlying belief that this country and what it stands for is worth preserving and growing.

So this post is both about reminding us of this fact. And maybe not waiting until the next sanctioned holiday to say thank you and pass some respect to our nations veterans.

Make any day veterans day. Make some patriotic cupcakes and share them with family and friends. Go to your veteran friends or notice a veteran in public and say thank you. Heck give a veteran a patriotic cupcake (almost better than a thank you maybe).

I mean literally to go up to a service person you see in public and say thank you. Personally thank all your friends who are veterans. And if you don’t believe in war or can’t support the military and in turn you can’t thank those folks then you better get off your butt right now and start working harder to change the world.

This post is somewhat inspired and an extension of an early post I made about being nice in the modern age. There are people all around you who deserve some credit and thanks. People doing heroic or even thankless work. Well maybe we can make all work thank-filled, just by taking a moment to remember to do so.

Thank you. Enjoy the cupcakes.

Patriotic Cupcakes! image courtesy of ginamig276 at Flickr under a creative commons license.