Verteran's Day: Thank you all

Today I'm sitting here thinking about all of the wonderful people we've lost overseas and here at home as of the recent Ft. Hood event. I cannot recall where I got these numbers, but I once read that in all of recorded history there has only been a collective 87 days of world peace.

Eighty-seven days. Wow.

I'll be honest, I don't think there will ever be peace in the Middle East - it's just too volatile, too much history is out there to settle around some conference table with world leaders looking on, void of objectivity. Everyone out here has his own agenda and affiliation with either side. That said, I'm not going to pontificate any further. This is about our soldiers.

Anyone that knows me well knows how I feel about our vets. Sometimes I'm prone to bouts of coldness, rhetorical banter bordering on the insane. In other words, I can be a big mouth with his own agenda and views, but so can we all I'm afraid, and I make no apology for this. However, when it comes to our vets I'm as soft as silly putty. It absolutely enrages me to see Chicago's mayor Richard Daley carelessly spend so much money on a bid to get the damn Olympics here when there are thousands of vets that are homeless. Vets? Hell, there's many more non-vets that are homeless, but I digress. I don't care if they were personal donations; it is fiscal irresponsibility, plain and simple.

Our vets served and have no home to go go to, no bed to sleep in, no doctor to help them when they need it, and that flat-out sucks! When Vietnam vets came home they were spat on, kicked, hit, called utterly horrendous names by civilians who were fed news media stories of what went on out there. The fact that some of these YOUNG people came home at all is amazing, let alone the fact that they were abused by the very people they swore to protect. I'm not ignorant enough to say some military people didn't go rogue out there, but most of our soldiers out there went there to serve their country with pride. Where the hell is that damn pride nowadays? That's just it...we have no pride as a nation anymore. It's been replaced with pundit banter we hear and adopt as gospel and self-serving narcissism. In short, we're patriotic when tragedy hits or when some overpaid TV host tells us it's okay.

Thank God we have out military that does a little thinking for us.

I'm not attempting to talk or feel for anyone else; I'm not in any position to do that, but I will say that if you turn on the nightly news on any given day you'll see a mass confusion that is this world right now. I just want to take this opportunity to say this: Thank you, servicemen and women, for all you do, will do, and have done for the USA. Mere words alone cannot convey this writer's love and respect for you and I hope you all come home safe and sound.

Thank a vet today if you can. No, they won't be offended or uncomfortable, and no, they won't get into some long banter about the government. They will most likely just say "You're welcome" and that's the best thing we can hear today...or any day!

Open your mouths a few times today, of all days!