Hey you, you with the piece of the American dream. Yeah, you. The one with house, white picket fence, the college degree, the healthy children, SUV, DVD player and a few grand tied up in the stock market.
Do you know what today is? Have you given any thought to it at all?
It's Veterans Day. Some of you are thinking I'm not a veteran and no one in my family was a veteran so what does it all mean, anyway? If you can't relate to it on a personal level, consider America's current era of well-being. Veterans had a lot to do with that.
As men and women returned from this nation's wars, a good many of them went to college. Their innovation and hard work helped set the stage for the prosperity Americans are now enjoying. Many veterans who went to college saw to it that their own children went to college, so they could better themselves and this country. That brought about more innovation.
But it isn't gadgets that give this nation its power. It's America's sense of self-assurance. This is a remarkable country. America is a tapestry of different ethnicities, languages, religions, ideologies and incomes. Yet, all of these different people of varying backgrounds live together in relative peace.
When this nation elects new leaders, the transition is orderly and relatively calm. No matter who is elected to office, the freedoms that distinguish this country from all others remain the same.
Those are the freedoms America's men and women in uniform have fought to preserve. Many paid the ultimate price to protect the practices Americans hold dear — political self-determination, a free-market economy, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.
On Veterans Day, we should honor those who have preserved our freedoms. Those of you who personally know veterans should take time out to say "thank you." Those of you who are not personally acquainted owe it to these brave service men and women to understand the history of this nation's wars and appreciate each "soldier's" sense of duty.
Whether one embraces Veterans Day on a personal level or at an arm's length, Americans owe it to this nation's veterans to renew their commitment to freedoms and to never forget that men and women much like themselves paid a heavy price for these liberties.