Today is a day that is much overlooked in the United States. No, I'm not talking about it being 11/11/11. Everyone's talking about that and reading all sorts of strange and intriguing things into the numerology of it. Give it up number crunchers, it's just another day in the life. The moon will make a circle around Earth, and Earth will move 1/365th of the way around our Sun. No, the day I'm talking about is Veteran's Day.
da Pyrate is amazingly enough, a military veteran. Not just in the Pyrate Marine, but in an actual branch of the US military. Army, to be exact. Way back before I was really born, I was a soldier. Now, that's nothing to call heroic or to brag about. It wasn't some "calling" I was drawn to. In those days, either you were a college student or a draftee. Not enrolled in an institution of higher learning, the only way to avoid the draft was to enlist. It gave you some choice, though not much, in what path your military life would take. Of the six male progeny of Mr. and Mrs. da Pyrate from the dirt road in Upstate NY, four of us served. Two of my brothers didn't, due to no fault of their own. Too poor to go to college, I went to Ft. Dix, NJ., then on to various spots around the world.
I served my time, and got out. I didn't enjoy standing in line, at all. I found even less enjoyment in eating the hearty yet somehow crappy food and wearing the same outfit every day. Even pyrates have sartorial choices. I eventually completed my education and found a career I loved.
All that leads me to being an undisciplined pyrate with spots on internet radio, and writing poems and phrases for a living. That's still not where this is going.
Today, I did something that I'd never done. I got something for free. Well....not exactly free, but close because I only had to pay for my drink. Lunch was on Applebees, if they were led to believe that you were a veteran. I led them to that conclusion, and had an excellent lunch, surrounded by families, working folks, and lots of similarly mooching veterans.
As I sat at the bar enjoying my chicken, I struck up a conversation with a fellow who stated that he was a vet, but was buying his own lunch. I shook his hand and congratulated him. I told him I had to take the freebie because my cardboard box got wet, and I had to move into my Merceded-Benz. The parking fees, I said, were keeping me flat broke. He sneered.
Then, I did what I'm asking everyone who may read this, to do. Even if Veteran's Day 2011 has long passed when you see this, do it anyway. Please shake a vet's hand and thank him for spending his time serving his country. If it was six months of active reserve, or a thirty year career, it was time well spent for the greatest cause I can think of. Whether that vet served as a supply person, or a combat infantry-person, he/she played an important roll. Every individual Soldier, Marine, Sailor, Coast Guardsman, or Airman has stood in the line that protects the freedom we all enjoy.
When you see that ancient, bent, and maybe even wheelchair bound, ex-military person in the Veteran's Day parade, show them respect and admiration. They are the ones among us who have actually done something to deserve it.
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