A Very Special Day...

November 12th.  A very special day, to my way of thinking.  

It's both my birthday, which is, ummm, pretty important to me, and it's Veterans Day, which is much more important.  To me and to everyone.  And I'd like to weigh in on both...

First, my birthday.  Three Score and Fifteen, I've attained.  A minor miracle!  I was a professional pool player for a time, you see, so I've backed out of more pool halls than most people have walked into.  Backed out of, as in, to try and keep body and soul together.  So growing more "seasoned" is quite an accomplishment.  One that permitted me to serve my country in uniform, get an education, meet my life partner, generate a fair-sized brood of fine daughters, and to hug my grand kids often.  

Big Time Stuff.

But it's also Veterans Day.  I was fortunate enough to serve in the Army back during that Vietnam "unpleasantness."  I didn't think the word "fortunate" applied back then, but I certainly do now.  Simply stated, it made me both a man and grew me up Right Now!  And I can tell you that the gigantic melting pot of mostly young males that it forced to live and work and fight and sometimes die together, changed the very fabric of our society for a generation.  

First because Blacks and Whites and Asians and Indians and everyone else got along just fine together, thank you.  That's because the guy on your left or your right just might just save your life someday.  Or you his.  So skin color somehow lost its cache, if you know what I mean.      

And second because it rekindled the same sense of patriotism that had been rampant across America immediately following WWII.  Pride in Country.  In the Flag.  In the Declaration and the Constitution and our Military and our First Responders.  Hot dogs and apple pie and picnics and parades and all that.  

A sense of patriotism I'm afraid we've since lost.  

And we lost it the day we stopped the draft.  The day we stopped forcing hundreds of thousands of young men of all color and background and economic circumstance and geographic location to sign up for the draft, no excuses, is the same day patriotism started to atrophy.  And maybe die.

Discontinuing the "homogenization" of our young men via conscription, generation after generation, I offer, is discontinuing the Patriotism Generator our Country needs to continue to flourish.  I take nothing away from the qualifications or ability or desire or talent - or even intellect - that our current Professional Military brings to the job.  It's far, far better than were our two-year warriors of the time.  But our society is worse off for the exchange.    

Less than 1% of our population has served in uniform.  Far less.  That means that the current generation which is calling the shots...has never been shot at.  Figuratively speaking.  And thus, has no skin in the game.  No sense of having bought and paid for one's birthright.  No sense of having paid a price for the unbelievable privilege of being born in the most miraculous place on Earth.  We won the Population Lottery, we did.  And paying a price for value received is now somehow passe.

I offer those who haven't served, or at least fear serving, can't quite imagine what it really means to sign a blank check made out to the American People for an amount up to and including one's life.  Can you?

So if you see a Vet today, or any day, please thank them.  For you, for me, for your kids, and for everyone.  Without the sacrifices they made, and the patriots before them, we'd likely be speaking a different language...