Archive for November 2010
Blowing in the wind
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It’s Veterans Day.
One of those often forgotten holidays that seem to have more resonance for generations past.
I still remember my mother in the 1950s marking the day by stopping to buy brightly colored paper poppies for my sisters and me, looping them through the buttonholes on our heavy wool coats where we proudly displayed our support.
Fast forward almost 20 years, during the furor of the Viet Nam War protest, when returning veterans were shamefully either not recognized, or worse, the paper flowers sold on street corners replaced with burning flags and shouted obscenities.
Perhaps it is the proximity to the fervor over the midterm elections, putting national policy and its makers squarely on our screens. Or maybe, just maybe, it is the reality that we are now heading into the 9th year of the war in Afghanistan, the 8th in Iraq, with America’s soldiers, and its vets, still heroically soldiering on, but I feel compelled this year to say something.
Time to acknowledge their service. Time to say thanks.
On Tuesday, I wished my students at Glendale Community College a wonderful Thursday; school is closed for the holiday, and we left with a round of applause for the one vet in our class, a polite, handsome young man who served four years in the U.S. Marine Corps including two tours in Afghanistan, and for the son of another student who is currently serving overseas in the U.S. Army, perhaps headed to Iraq.
The next day, I headed to Arizona State University. Parking my car and hurrying to class I glanced up and stopped in surprise. All along the mall, tiny red, white and blue flags had sprouted in the grass. They lined the pathways, planted several inches apart, creating what seemed to be an infinite line of old glories waving in the autumn breeze, summoning our attention.
A hand lettered sign explained that each flag represented one veteran now enrolled at ASU. I took a minute to take it all in and silently add my thanks.
What a wonderful tribute to our vets. What a wonderful tribute to our educational institutions. And what a wonderful country.
11 Nov, 2010 > Comment - 7 -