We honor them every year and we regard them with awe and deepest admiration. Proud, but humble in countenance, they seem to simply play their part in our annual celebration of appreciation for their courageous contributions to the wellbeing of our nation. The well-being of ourselves as a society.

The flesh and blood reality is even more awe-inspiring as we realize how fragile life truly is, and yet these brave men and women each took a stand and declared that no harm should come to their fellow countrymen. Not on their watch.

Veterans Day is a time when each of us has a rare opportunity to reflect a small fraction of that magnificent commitment to humanity back upon the heroes who helped to make us all so much safer in a sometimes savage world.

Those of us who never served in the military cannot know the hardship, privation, and sacrifice that these people have made on behalf of all of us. Some have made the supreme sacrifice. It is for them most of all that we bow our heads and utter prayers of solace and of gratitude for the precious gifts that they have laid before us. Those of liberty and a future free from fear of enemies seen and unseen.

We must endeavor to express our thanks at every possible opportunity. Veterans Day is one opportunity, but there can be many more if we choose to make them. It is up to us to do just that.

We can take a stand and commit ourselves to celebrating the contributions of our beloved champions, one and all, each and every day to come. We ask that everyone here and elsewhere do just that.