Agnes by Tony Cochran for November 11, 2022

Remembering helps in the thanks department.

You just did.

Although today is the day meant to honor our veterans, let us also remember those who never got to become veterans.

Veteran’s day is to honor all veterans alive and deceased. Memorial day is to honor those that died while in military service.

Thanks to my father. uncles & all those that served & gave their lives in WWI, WWII, the Korean Wars & those that have served & continue to serve to protect our freedom around the world!

Today is Veterans’ Day, not Memorial Day.

Today we honor the LIVING servicemen and women who were so valuable in the defense of our nation.

Thanks to you, all who have served and are serving in our military, here and around the world. Today is also National Sundae Day. (YUM)

Sneaky tears.

Today, I remember my dad, a Marine in the Korean War who was grievously wounded on October 2, 1951 at a place called Heartbreak Ridge. Thankfully he survived his wounds and I miss him. His example led me to join the Army and serve, and my brother joined the Navy. Thank you Dad.

You are by remembering him on this special day!

As I say a few times a year:

If, as I think you must, you count the subjugation of Native Americans as one continuous genocide rather than a series of discrete conflicts, the US has deployed its military somewhere between 250-300 times; even the government’s not sure exactly (count the subjugation as discrete conflicts and that number skyrockets, of course).

Of those, to be charitable, 250 deployments (and I’m talking full deployments, not quickie, in-and-out “operations”; we committed 617 of these. In Africa. In 2014.), there was a defensive component to 1812, the Civil War, and WWII. If you meet a veteran of one of those 3 – and sure, what the heck, throw in the Revolution, though it wasn’t defensive – thank them.

Any other veterans, apologize for wasting their time and blood for rich men’s profits.

Use your freedom to build people up instead of tearing people down. Whether you agree with them or not should be irrelevant.

My dad was in WW2 in the Philippines. God Bless Our Military and Veterans. You have and do sacrifice so much for us. We owe you a debt that we can never pay.

You just did my friends…..