November 11, 2009 is Veterans Day - Give Thanks

This Wednesday, November 11, 2009, is Veterans Day. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed this date in November as Armistice Day in 1919 in the United States on the first anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I . It is also celebrated in other parts of the world as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. It was always known as Armistice Day until a law passed in 1954, officially calling it Veterans Day as it was to pay tribute to all veterans of every conflict.

The men and women of every nationality who join the armed forces to defend their country and support human rights and dignity of oppressed people throughout the world are a special kind of human being indeed!

As we go about our daily activities of getting ready for work, making what we feel are difficult decisions of our lives, we need to reflect every day about what it would feel like to endure the extreme difficulties of basic training, of boarding a plane in the middle of the night, bound for territories of conflict, war and terrorism, to possibly face the day of extreme sacrifice. Suddenly our difficulties may not seem so bad.

Who knows...perhaps someday, all the people of our planet will find the knowledge within every each of us to not want to covet from our neighbor, but to help every other person in need. "You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one"!

If you attend the Pittsburgh Veterans Day parade, or any other Veterans Day event in your local community, applaud the veterans, shake their hands, tell them thanks, perhaps even an hug. None of us want war and no one more so than a veteran who knows what war really is.

Until that "dreamer's" day" of complete peace comes, we give our forever thanks, every day, to those special people who have that extra gift inside of them, to give their very lives to allow all of us to be free and safe, every day of our lives.