Our reporters spread out across the county this week to cover a series of Veterans Day ceremonies at schools, Legion halls, flagpoles, and veterans monuments.
We applaud our local schools for their work to both educate our students about Veterans Day and recognize local veterans, often parents or grandparents of students.
But the one speech from all these events that struck us the most was given at the Damariscotta Legion hall by a Vietnam veteran from East Boothbay who serves as a national official with the American Legion.
John Hargreaves went beyond the platitudes to talk about concrete action to fulfill our commitment to veterans – or, in some cases, the lack of adequate action.
He gave statistics about veteran homelessness – at once startling and unsurprising – and scolded us for allowing this situation to go on.
Our reporter, Paula Roberts, brought back a copy of his speech, with the following line in all capital letters: “IT IS MY BELIEF THAT NO VETERAN SHOULD BE HOMELESS.”
Hargreaves spoke to the need to provide services for victims of sexual misconduct in the military, as well as treatment of invisible wounds – whether physical health effects from exposure to chemicals or radiation or mental health effects from experiencing the horrors of war.
The measure of how well we honor our veterans involves more than how many of us say thank you to the guy in the World War II baseball cap at McDonald’s.
Yes, we should say thank you. But we also need to hold public officials accountable to provide veterans with the services they have earned.
Honor is an action word, and it’s about more than speeches and handshakes and pats on the back.
Just like on Memorial Day, we should follow our wreath ceremonies with consideration of our current military engagements and whether they merit the loss of American lives, on Veterans Day, we should follow our thank you’s with consideration of our commitment to veterans and whether we are fulfilling it.
