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Today is Veterans Day, a day packed with parades and celebrations to honor the veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.
With so many veterans coming home to unstable and
unfortunate conditions, are these types of celebrations really the best way to
honor them?
I want to say right from the start that I respect
anybody who served our country in any branch of the military. Numerous members
of my family are veterans, including my father. I’m in no way saying that we
shouldn’t spend time to honor them.
However, I do feel like these types of celebrations in
the form parades are a bit unnecessary. They miss the point of how we should be
helping and honoring our veterans. Also, using the occasion as a way to promote
your business through sales seems like a disingenuous way to celebrate them.
I always thought the celebrations for Veterans Day to
be a huge waste of money that could be better spent on helping the people the
holiday is for.
About 11% of the adult homeless population are
veterans, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. On top of
that, there are on average about 17 veteran suicides per day in the U.S.,
according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Many veterans returning
from service have trouble getting the medical help they deserve.
While honoring veterans with a parade is a good
gesture, I think many of them would rather that money be spent on helping them
fix the issues they face when they arrive home.
There are plenty of less expensive ways that vets are
honored, such as playing the national anthem before nearly every sporting
event. I don’t see how having a parade is any better or more efficient a means
of celebrating them.
Furthermore, there is a huge difference between people
standing up for a parade and cheering them on and truly making a difference in
the way they are treated when they return from service.
You would be hard pressed to find anybody who wouldn’t
say that vets deserve to be respected, but there are few of those people that
are helping in effective ways. Donating to charities, helping homeless veterans
on the street find a place to live and calling your political representatives to
ask for legislation that helps support our servicemembers even after their
service to our country is complete are all ways that anyone can help.
Deciding to have a parade may be done with good
intentions, but it’s little more than an empty gesture if it doesn’t inspire
people to get out and help better the lives of veterans.
This Veterans Day, I encourage people to really think
about what the celebrations represent and use it as a reminder that we need to
do more to help out our veterans than just cheering them on during a parade.