Comments as prepared for Keene’s Veterans Day Ceremony
Thank you, and it is truly an honor and a privilege to be here today on this important Veterans Day.
Just last month I was fortunate to participate in the Civic Leadership Initiative with Keene State College. As part of the initiative, we traveled to Washington DC where we toured the Holocaust Museum and spoke with the Museum staff.
I don’t know if any you here ever toured the Holocaust Museum, but for me, what I witnessed at the Museum, I will never forget. It was an incredibly humbling and disturbing experience.
I was forced to confront acts of unspeakable horror and hatefulness. I was forced to confront the reality of how atrocious one human being can treat another human being. It is hard to understand or even believe that such a hateful ideology could take hold of people. But it did and millions of people suffered and died as a result.
On my way home, as I was waiting for my flight at the DC airport, a group of about 30 World War II veterans arrived at the same airport preparing to board their plane.
After what I had just seen at the museum, I was overwhelmed by emotion and respect for each one of those veterans and for their service. Their willingness to put their own lives on the line changed history, saved many innocent lives and ended a devastating war.
It is impossible to imagine what this world would be like today if these veterans had not accepted the challenge.
Where would we be today if they had not acted and stopped the genocide? Where would we be if they had not acted and stopped nations from attacking and invading their neighbors?
It is that spirit of action that we honor today. We know that all of our veterans who served for us deserve our thank you. Today as a nation, we gather together and say “Thank You”.
I would argue though that a ‘thank you’ alone is not enough. That a commitment of action to support our soldiers is necessary – not only when they accept the challenge to serve but also when they come home.
I am proud to say that in our community we now have the Monadnock region’s first veterans’ health services facility that offers full time primary healthcare and part time mental health care. It took a tremendous amount of work and commitment from many people to bring this clinic to Keene and I would like to offer my special thank you to our US Senator Jeanne Shaheen for making the Keene Outreach Clinic possible.
We must also address the need for good jobs for our distinguished Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. As President Obama said, “We ask our American Veterans to leave their careers, leave their families, and risk their lives to fight for our country. The last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home.”
I believe that it is absolutely unacceptable that those who serve our country are not given the opportunity to support themselves and their families with dignity and respect when they come home.
It is not enough to just say thank you and move on.
Real respect and honor for our veterans grows out of understanding the service they have provided for us. I believe that it is essential that you, the veterans here today, tell us your stories. It is also essential that we listen to you. Then your stories will become our stories and maybe, just maybe, our ability to prevent future wars will come from what we learn.
As a young girl, I often listened to my father, a WW II veteran when he told us his stories. I remember him telling us and with emotion in his voice about the Holocaust and I asked him, “Dad, how could people treat each other in such terrible ways?” He said he did not have an answer, but he did say that “we must work every day of our lives to make sure that it never happens again.”
If we really truly care about the men and women who serve our country in the military, then Veterans Day will not end when the speeches are over.
Wherever there is a veteran – for as long as each veteran lives — that day must remain Veterans Day.
That responsibility rests with all of us.
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