From the Editor
SPEAKING OF SERVICE. Douglas Towers of York, a Marine and graduate of Paris Island, recently talked with members of York Boy Scout Troop 301 about the experience of becoming a Marine.
Photo courtesy of Al Henson
Thank you, veterans
We lose track of this holiday. It comes upon us in the middle of so many other busy things: school, elections, Thanksgiving just around the bend. There is the obligatory political posturing attached to it by opportunists of all stripes, though rarely an honest parade or other widespread public remembrance.Originally it was known as Armistice Day, a celebration of the end of World War I, the war to end all wars. Not until 1954 was the name formally changed to Veteran's Day by an act of Congress, the original import of the day having been largely forgotten, swallowed in the maw of brutal history that followed.
But while the significance of the original armistice faded, what did not was the recurring stream of returning veterans. Those who had served. They deserved a day on which their efforts would be remembered and it should come as no surprise that it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who took the lead in changing the name in order to properly honor the veterans of all wars in which our country had fought.
For a long stretch, the numbers of our veterans who had served in wartime was a shrinking number. No more. In a time of increasing conflict, we see their numbers once again grow larger. They are commonplace now in our airports, on their way out and into harm's way, on their way home to their families after long and heart-wrenching separations, doing the job assigned and left to them by us.
Yesterday, Nov. 7, national elections were held in which great noise was made but very little is likely to be solved. Our national media attention will be drawn into the spin and hype of it all, and this holiday will get lost again, or worse yet, used primarily by cynical hypocrites of both sides for narrow political means.
But that does not need to happen. Everyone reading this paper has a veteran that they know, a veteran that served not for a party or for a politician, but for their country, including you and me. This Saturday, take a moment and think of them and thank them if you can.
