Photo: https://www.picf.org/news/happy-veterans-day/
Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.
Next Monday, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day in the United States. The federal holiday celebrates all those who have served or are serving in the military to defend our country and the freedoms we cherish.
It is a day to celebrate those willing to serve and sacrifice for the common good – the very definition of the American Way.
The Eleventh Hour
World War I was known at the time as “The Great War.” The world had seen nothing like it in terms of scope, death and destruction. The hostilities ended when an armistice was declared between the Allied nations and Germany on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month (Nov. 11, 1918).
It would take seven more months before the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war. But that same year, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as Armistice Day. Nineteen years later, in 1938 Congress formally declared Nov. 11 a legal holiday.
But it turned out that the War to End All Wars didn’t end war. World War II was even bigger and more far reaching, truly involving most of the world. A decade after that, U.S. forces faced combat in Korea.
So at the urging of Veterans service organizations, in 1954 the 83rd Congress amended the original bill by changing the name to Veterans Day, now honoring veterans of all U.S. wars.
Self-Sacrifice
It takes self-sacrifice to decide to serve in our nation’s all-volunteer military. It took sacrifice to serve even when the draft was instituted beginning in 1940 and World War II. (Mandatory military service ended in 1973 as the Vietnam War wound down.)
When people join the military, lives are uprooted, families disrupted, futures put on hold all to ensure that our country survives.
It doesn’t take charging up a hill to take out a machine gunner’s nest to sacrifice oneself for your companions, your community, your country. Uprooting a life to make sure supplies continue to move is a sacrifice too – and the saying that an Army marches on its stomach is true!
Community Security
In order for a community, a country, to thrive, it must be secure from outside threats. How else can we take chances and pursue dreams?
That’s why firefighters and police officers doing their jobs well is so important to local communities. They sacrifice for the greater good when necessary.
Veterans Day celebrates those doing much the same on a much larger stage. We Americans are blessed to be on a continent with few neighbors – and friendly neighbors at that. But any person or country considering attacking our security knows that we have a strong military ready and willing to respond.
Here’s a quote from President Wilson’s address at the first Veterans (Armistice) Day:
“With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory. We were able to bring the vast resources, material and moral, of a great and free people to the assistance of our associates in Europe who had suffered and sacrificed without limit in the cause for which we fought.”
The Americans of the day served the world community.
The Greater Good
This concept of service to the community goes beyond the military, and beyond the times of war. Look around and you will see many, even most, of your fellows are working for the greater good.
Our friends in government, from the mayor to the recreation supervisor at the community center, are working to make the community a better place to live. It’s about a lot more than a paycheck.
Our teachers, from pre-school to graduate professors, are working to make the community a better place to live too. So are all those who support the front line in the classroom. They are teaching our future.
Our many nonprofit groups, from small to large, are working to make life a little better for those suffering in one way or another. Our business associations, chambers and community groups literally look for ways to help the greater good.
That helps the community, and helps us too.
Thanks Are Due
We should thank veterans for their service this Monday – and every day. We should also thank the many others who try to make our community a better place to live.
Moreover, we should be one of those who are working for a better community, whether that’s by helping the homeless or improving the business climate. It’s for the greater good.
It is The Sunstone Way.
Remember, always be a Sunstone!
John Keisler
CEO & Managing Partner
Sunstone Management, Inc.
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©Sunstone Management, Inc. 2024