WELCOME HOME VETERANS
President John F. Kennedy, himself a veteran, expressed it well when he wrote, "A nation reveals itself not only by the citizens it produces, but also by the citizens it honors, the citizens it remembers."
I like all kinds of music, and that includes classic country music. I was listening the other night to an old Merle Haggard hit called “The Fighting Side of Me,” and I think some of the words of that great song are very appropriate to Veterans’ Day. I don’t sing this song, because I’d like to be re-elected - but I would like to share some of the words:
"I hear people talkin' bad, Harpin' on the wars we fight, An' gripin' 'bout the way things oughta be; An' I don't mind 'em switchin' sides, An' standin' up for things they believe; But when they're runnin' down my country, man, they're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.
Runnin' down our way of life, Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep. If you don't love it, leave it: When you're runnin' down my country, man, You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me."
And to those words I say Amen!
Veterans’ Day is very special to me. I come from a military family. My 5th Great-Grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, several cousins who fought in the Civil War, and an uncle in the Spanish-Amerrican War. My granddad who raised me was a World War I veteran. Both my late mother and father were World War II veterans – and my mother was one of the first women to serve our country overseas. She served in the WACS with the 15th Air Force at Bari, Italy when the place was still being bombed by the Luftwaffe. I have a grand-daughter who’s a US Navy veteran, and a grandson in the Utah Army National Guard. I’m an Air force retiree, and one of many who are proud to be Vietnam vets.
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