VETERANS DAY

Our country's freedom is protected by men and women who give up a world of choices so that we can continue to have ours. They are the Americans who serve in our military. They deserve our honor this Veterans Day — and every Veterans Day.

And when the battle is joined, we ask our brave men and women to risk their lives to defend this nation’s interests. It’s not a sacrifice that can properly be undertaken on a whim.

That’s why those long rows of white tombstones at our nation’s military cemeteries are such a resonant part of the American landscape. They demonstrate, in a country touched by flux and equivocation and the endless mutability of opinion, that there have always been warriors who embrace principle as a fixed star.

Tiny American flags bloom from those cemeteries every Memorial Day, the day we set aside to honor the nation’s war dead. Veterans Day recognizes the veterans that are still with us — the ones we can still find in our neighborhoods, our churches, our schools, and the grocery store. They bear living witness not only to the privilege of liberty but its costs.

Not all members of the military see battle during their service, but there are other hardships in serving in America’s armed forces. The profound pain of separation from family, the loss of privacy, the boredom — these are no small things. It is right and good that we should acknowledge those sacrifices each November, as the holidays approach.

Tomorrow, we pause, in a month marked by gatherings for gratitude, to say 'thank you' to our veterans. Their contributions are easy to overlook, but we should never allow their service and sacrifices to go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Thank you, Veterans, for the sacrifices all of you have made and continue to make for all of us. #veteransday