Veterans Day

We just had another one of those 'Veteran's Day' holidays. It's a day in which those who were or are in the military are singled out as special. Hmmm.  But why? Why does this country and most others only honor with a special day those people who were in the military service, and not all the other professions that are so important to making a nation what it is?  Rather than entering the army, navy, air force or marines of their own volition, some of the veteran honorees were drafted against their will into service.  Among that group are those who hated being in the military and would never have joined if they had a choice. Others like me (I was in the navy strictly to avoid being drafted into the army during the Vietnam war) joined because the military draft was going to get them anyway.

Fact is, many of those who "risk their lives" as a soldier often want to do so.  In fact, every nation has far more people involved in war activities than in peaceful ones. Countries have war colleges and institutes that plan for war. I think every war contingency plan that could possibly have ever been constructed has already been so by most of the nations in the world. The excess of weapons and armaments match the huge excess of armed forces most countries have. I am not sure I want to honor any part of that. Maybe we should just have a peace day and give thanks whenever the military doesn't fight.

Soldiers may or not be "heroes" when they risk their lives in combat. But every day each citizen who contributes to a nation through work, parenting, charity and a hundred other services, give more to their nation than all those soldiers fighting those battles. Yet we never honor or glorify them. They are themost important "soldiers" in a community. They  make a country what it is. If they want to honor the soldiers that are in the military, perhaps the people of a nation should give them a pay raise every year they don't fight anywhere in the world. A little incentive to make peace, not war, would change the image of the military from an aggressive force to that of a protective force. Isn't that what a miulitary force is supposed to be?

Come to think of it, maybe we should cancel Veteran's Day and just have a Non Veterans Day to honor all those people who have had nothing to do with killing or war. I would salute that.