Celebrating Our Heroes
My sincerest apologies for the tardiness of my assigned post. On occasion studying for exams and spending time with important people in my life cuts into my complaining time, as outlandish as that sounds. But today, I choose not to complain, as I reflect on yesterday’s association with the celebration of veterans in the United States.
Not everyone who has joined the military has done it as a matter of principle, purely to protect American interests, or to serve the country that has guaranteed them freedom as long as they have been alive. Many join to escape bad living conditions, oppression by social status in their locales, or just to shoot high powered assault rifles. And indeed, some do join simply to defend our great nation, or because their family has a tradition of service. But I came to realize that it doesn’t matter what the motivations are for serving one’s country, it still makes our veterans heroes.
These days, it seems like some people might scoff at the idea of calling someone a hero just because they join a branch of the armed services. They might say that someone who serves in the Coast Guard isn’t as much of a hero as someone who has been deployed to Iraq. But as far as I’m concerned, anyone who joins the military is actively participating in the defense of America, even if they’re not directly in the line of fire during their careers. Participating in any effort to maintain our freedoms makes the men and women who serve and have served heroes to me.
So while many people think of elderly men in military type hats recounting stories of the Korean War on this day of remembrance, I choose to keep in mind the people who haven’t served in wars. I choose to keep in mind the man or woman who sits behind a desk or works in the kitchen as they humbly go about their support role. They make the same commitments to this country as those who are on the front lines, and know that at any time they too could be put in harm’s way. To even run that risk by enlisting in the military is a heroic move in my book.
Without these heroes what we do here would not be guaranteed as our right by the Constitution. I have the utmost respect for the sacrifices and hardships that our men and women in uniform often must face in giving us here at Exreality the right to speak our minds.