Veterans Day is always an important and poignant holiday. All of us know someone personally touched by the courage and sacrifice of veterans. Whether a friend, a father, a brother or a son – or these days, a sister or a daughter – all Americans share a connection to veterans.
This year, however, events have teamed up to add a special significance to Veterans Day. The Veterans Administration and its hospitals are in the news, not for the good work they are tasked to do, but for inefficiencies and lapses in care. The jobs vets are finding when they come home are at issue, both in quantity and quality. And, in a reversal of what everyone wants to see, the United States is sending more troops back into Iraq.
Add to that, the fallout of the midterm election should keep national defense and our ongoing Middle East conflicts – and with that veterans – in the spotlight for some time. With the Republican takeover of the Senate, the bellicose Sen. John McCain is slated to become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. That body has responsibility over everything related to national security, including the president’s handling of Iraq, Afghanistan and the war with the Islamic State.
McCain has been harshly critical of the way President Barack Obama has conducted the wars in the Middle East and has called for American ground troops in the battle against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. That would create not only more veterans, but more dead and wounded. Among other things, that calls into question how it is we should honor those who have served in America’s wars. Specifically, how does it honor America’s veterans to cavalierly send more troops in harm’s way? That is especially worrisome if it involves yet another poorly defined mission.
Howard Schultz might have a better idea. Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, has just released a book called For Love of Country, written with The Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran. In it, they tell the stories of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Schultz wants the nation to focus more on the way vets are treated when they return to civilian life. In particular, he means jobs. He makes the case that there are sound business reasons to hire vets, pointing to what he calls veterans’ “authentic leadership.”
In addition, Schultz is urging other corporations to rethink their hiring policies and how they look at vets. Valuing the experience veterans bring to the job, he says, should be ingrained in companies corporate culture.
A good job is certainly a more concrete expression of a nation’s gratitude than bunting or a parade, but there is a place for those as well. And today, one of those places will be Durango.
A number of events are scheduled to commemorate Veterans Day. Beginning at 6 a.m., the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 4031 will put flags along Main Avenue. All day, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., vets will get free oil changes at Grease Monkey, 10 River Road in Durango. The parade begins at 11 a.m., followed by open houses at the American Legion Post No. 28 starting at 12:30 and at the VFW beginning at 1 p.m.
The day concludes with what could be its highlight. Starting at 6 p.m., veterans from the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars will speak about what Veterans Day means to them in Fort Lewis College’s Student Union Vallecito Room. Expect no bragging, but be prepared to understand the meaning of loss.
Veterans Day is to honor that loss.
