Veteran's Day is a day I never really started to appreciate until I visited two National Cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetary and The Little Bighorn National Cemetary. The peacefulness of those two cemeteries left me with a feeling of the peace that was fought for with the lives that were laid to rest there. Another place that moved me was the National Mall, where the Vietnam Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and the Korean Memorial left me with a great appreciation of the sacrifices made by those few for what is supposed to be a grateful nation. Have I honored them properly? Probably not. Has the nation honored them properly. No! Veteran's Day is more of a way to make a political statement than to honor our Veterans. 

I was watching TV the other day and a commercial for the Wounded Warrior Project came on. Like many charities, it has been marred with scandals of misuse of funds by the people who run the charity, and not enough of the money was actually going to the people who really need it. What drives me nuts is the fact that we need charities at all for those who have put everything on the line for the nation. We say we are a grateful nation but don't put our money where our mouths are. If we really are a grateful nation our wounded veterans would have no need for a charity to make sure their needs are being met. Our government should be searching for those veterans who are homeless and giving them the services they need and have earned by their service. 

In my lifetime I have been able to mingle with veterans from WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Do I understand what they went through? No, but I have tried. I have sat in the home of a high school friend who had lost in brother in Vietnam. I saw the shrine of remembrance that his mother and father had created in their living room. It has been a memory that has stayed with me all my life. Many times through the years I thought why him and not me. I enlisted but was turned down because of my bad knees but I wanted to go and I feel that I should have been able to do something. I could have driven a truck. In fact, there were many duties that I could have performed and I wish to this day they had let me. 

I don't think we as a nation haven't done nearly enough for those who have served especially those that were wounded while defending our nation. That goes not only for the military but also our Law Enforcement and Fire Fighters who have died here protecting us. We the people have taken their sacrifice way too lightly. Yes, it was their duty but they were performing that duty for us. We have had a President call our deceased Veterans who were killed in action suckers and losers. The man who uttered those words was a man who refused to serve when his country called. He stated that John McCain was not a hero because he was a Prisoner of War even though he was a draft dodger. While as a POW John McCain experienced torture and solitary confinement. When John McCain's father was promoted to I believe Rear Admiral as a propaganda ploy the North Vietnam Government offered to free John McCain.  John McCain refused stating that everyone captured before him needed to be set free. That was not the actions of a Sucker and a Loser. That was the actions of an honest-to-god hero. The fact that we have now elected that President who refuses to say that John McCain was a hero for another term just shows me that much of the voting public thinks of those who have sacrificed everything as suckers and losers too just like our soon-to-be-again President. I know that statement will make many people angry but the truth often makes people angry. Maybe that is why so many are rushing to embrace the lies. In the 1940s we were transformed into a mighty nation ready to lead the world by a gentle man in a wheelchair. Now we are a weakened and divided nation being led by a man who doesn't understand the strength of the man in the wheelchair. 

Neither political party, the Republicans or the Democrats has done enough for our veterans but the Republicans truly don't value those that have sacrificed so much. Our Military has been one of liberators and not one of suppression. I fear that the near future will be even worse because they will have to turn their weapons on the very citizens of this nation that they were sworn to protect. If the bloody conflict at home that Trump has promised happens our once fine military will be turned into the Brown Shirts of the past and our Police and Sheriffs will become more like the Gestapo. 

We have now elected to office a man who negotiated and surrendered to the very terrorist that assisted with 9/11 and then blamed everything on Biden. We have elected to the highest office of the land a man who refused the call of the nation, his nation, and then called the ones that answered that call "Suckers and Loser". He has disrespected the parents of those who sacrificed everything. We elected a man who used Arlington Cemetary as a way to try to embarrass his political opponent when he was the one who negotiated with those terrorists not ensuring the safety of the soldiers he left behind for Biden to evacuate. Veteran's Day will always now be a day of remembrance of how our President-elect disrespected those who gave when he was unwilling and then called them suckers and losers. 

We the people have spoken but the truth has not been spoken. I pray that our military and our law enforcement do not become the tools of racism, bigotry, and hate. What we have said will keep our country divided and weakened for many years to come. Every Veteran's Day I will remember all that have treated those that sacrificed everything as suckers and losers.