Make Some Noise this Veterans’ Day

“The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Standing in a cemetery on Veterans’ or Memorial Day can put a person at the center of one of those great spiritual paradoxes. One feels simultaneously distant from and, yet, close to God. The peaceful flutter of American flags couldn’t be more different from the ear splitting clatter that most likely was the last thing some heroes who are remembered here heard, but yet this tranquility seems a fitting honor for those who gave their all for something greater than any one person can be.

Respect and honor should not always be a silent display.

On this Veterans’ Day in giving thanks for those who served, let us show our gratitude by using one of our uniquely endowed gifts, our voice.

God gave us a voice so we might strengthen the human bond and do good here on earth. There is no greater good than standing up for those who have lost their voice or whose voices get drowned out by the clangor of nonsense we people sometimes foolishly produce.

Let us find the strength, courage and fortitude to use our voices to advocate for those who have stood up for us in battlefields distant and near. Let us blend our voices so they forever echo like that kiss of which Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke.

Many veterans find it difficult to silence the terrible rumbling sounds of conflict the rest of us cannot hear. Too often the cries of these veterans go unnoticed. Let us raise our voices to make a thunderous noise, a call for help to quiet the demons which torment so many of our veterans long after they return home.

For if we do so, we may just find God is not so distant after all.

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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com 

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.

Semper fidelis. Always faithful.

Today is the 235^th birthday of the United States Marine Corps and tomorrow is Veterans Day commemorating the 92^nd anniversary of the conclusion of the “war to end all wars.” Veterans Day, originally called Armistice Day, marks the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 when World War I officially ended.  The day is now a national holiday in which we honor those who have bravely served and rededicate ourselves to world peace.  With the vicious 2010 election season in our rearview mirrors, these anniversaries could not have come at a better time.

At the first observance of tomorrow’s holiday, President Woodrow Wilson said, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

Gen. Amos takes command
United States Marine Corps
Official Page, on Flickr

The thing with which it has freed us and the opportunity it has given. President Wilson was right then and his words remain true today.  The debt we owe those who walked these roads before us, who built our country and changed the world is, in part, gratitude for freeing us.  But, the bulk of this obligation can only be repaid by our making the most of the opportunity we have been given as a result of their sacrifice.

It is likely the first chills of winter were carried by the wind blowing across the Schuylkill River on this day in 1775 when two battalions of Continental Marines formed in Philadelphia.  These men who accepted their duty to protect and defend could not have known what they were starting.  The world, our country and the Americans of this century are quite different than anything they could have envisioned.  Yet, we share the same desire to expand the reach of peace and justice so those who follow will be free from that which limits our dreams.  And, that is the point.  Those patriots and every Marine who has followed were not willing to fight so we could pursue their dreams.  They fought so we could chase our own.

I get increasingly irritated by politicians, TV pundits and political agitators who review election results or the latest poll data and are willing to announce in confident tones that they and they alone know what the American People want.  It is likely most Americans share a desire for freedom and a better tomorrow.  Peace and justice.  When those exist and we fight side-by-side to protect them, dreaming becomes individual and boundless.  We may not always share the same dreams, just the commitment to protect the right to have and follow those dreams as free people.

Musician Kid Rock’s new single Born Free hits the right chord today.  The best way to honor those who sacrificed so we could stand freely in a world they would scarcely recognize is to give our all so those who follow will be able to fulfill a destiny that surpasses the limits of our imaginations.

Thank you to all of America’s veterans.

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(Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com)

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.