[Milsurplus] With appreciation

Mark Richards mark.richards at massmicro.com
Sun Nov 11 09:45:49 EST 2007


I want to thank all the veterans and their supporters on this list.

The United States remains a fractured nation as to the direction its 
leaders have taken our resources and our lives, but I choose not to 
allow the boundary between politic and person to waver.  I can feel the 
same sense of person-to-person appreciation for a veteran from any time 
or conflict.  They did not decide the battlefield.  Instead, they pulled 
their boots on and marched.

When someone volunteers to serve their nation they are literally giving 
their life and the fate of their family to the nation's leaders and 
ultimately to a collectively shared outcome.  There are lots of young 
pickup-truck-borne, cammo-wearing, Lee Greenwood-listening flag-wavers 
these days, but few who drive on down to the local recruiter and sign 
up.  Those who do have my greatest respect.

Pride in the nation may be seen as a bit histrionic, irrelevant, or in 
part the cause of our ills and a common root of conflict, but 
appreciation for the individuals who give the whole of themselves for 
all of us is never displaced.

It's because you served.

And so my thanks.

/mark richards




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