UNITED STATES—Monday, November 11, 2024, is Veterans Day. For most Americans they get the day off, but not many understand the importance of the day. The federal government offices are closed, the banks are closed, no postal main runs, and many state government offices are also closed. It is NOT A DAY OFF, it is a day to celebrate are veterans.
As I have gotten significantly older, I understand they do not receive the respect and admiration they absolutely deserve. We are talking about people who have fought for this country. Many who have sacrificed their lives so we can have our freedoms that so many of us taken for granted.
I wish that was a TRUTH, more people would actually acknowledge because too many of them fail to do it. On my dad’s side of the family, a vast majority of my uncles are veterans. Rather it be the Army, the Navy or the Marines, they served. So I have a higher respect for Veterans Day than most people because there was a big chance many of my uncles may not have come back. They did thankfully.
There are those who go off to fight in wars and serve this country who don’t make it back to their families and that level of grief is something that is quite difficult to deal with. Most families don’t have to experience it, but there are quite a few who do and it is a feeling that never disappears. I still find it unfathomable that we have veterans who fight for this country, only to come home and not have a place to live, a roof over their head, food for their stomachs and so much more.
How in the hell can you fight for your country, but your country cannot find a way to fight for you? Like I’m trying to make sense of it, but it just feels that America is a selfish country sometimes. The government needs to do more to ensure veterans don’t ever have to want or need for anything. I can say this solidly because of the story that I learned about my grandfather that I never knew. He was a veteran who fought in World War II. He unfortunately died in 2021, just shy a few months of turning 100 after he caught COVID-19 and it took him out within a few days.
It was just a brutal death for my family because it unexpectedly transpired and I cannot recall another time when I attended a funeral that hurt like hell. He shared a story with me and a few of my cousins before his death about how he retuned home from the war and he had trouble getting a loan for housing that the U.S. government had promised so many soldiers. However, his White counterparts got a loan without any problem. Him, being an African-American was a bit harder. I couldn’t believe it; I could not understand it.
You fight for this country, but because of the color of your skin you get punished, just sad, especially during a pivotal war like WWII. I mean I didn’t know many veterans who were survivors of this epic war. He was one of the very few because if you do the math you would have to be 100 or a little over 100 to be a veteran still living after you fought in WWII. Most that I know nowadays fought in Vietnam and wars post-Vietnam.
There are still things about my grandfather’s time fighting in WWII that I don’t know, that I wish to God I had picked his brain about it. There were just traumas I know he endured that he just didn’t want to talk about. I knew he didn’t get on a plane ever again after what happened to him in WWII. He was literally thrown out of a fighter plane into the gold waters on Normandy beach where American soldiers were ambushed by the enemy. If you want a glimpse of what that chaos was like, watch the opening of Steven Spielberg’s war flick “Saving Private Ryan.” That is a brutal movie to watch, especially the opening, but just imagine what it was like for him in actual life.
There are plenty of businesses that are offering free meals to veterans and their family on this courageous day. Not to mention, there are a lot of freebies going around. This was a day my grandfather looked forward to because it was a day that people who show their appreciation to him and his sons who fought for the country. They were treated like actual heroes because guess what America, they actually are. So NOT just on Veteran’s Day, but anytime you see a veteran you need to thank them for their service, because gosh you can only imagine what this country would be like if we didn’t have our veterans fighting for our freedoms.
