should recognize more

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.

I'm sure a lot of you knew that already and those that didn't found out through the course of the day thanks to the 759 commercials that have been running on tv and radio.  Or maybe you found out because there's no mail delivery and banks are closed.

Veteran's Day is a nice idea, it really is.  Have a day for those who are either serving or have served in the military in some form.

But why just the one day?

Why do we need a holiday to show appreciation for those who serve?  Sure, some places do things for the military on a regular basis, such as discounts and so forth, but I've seen in the last few years that become less and less common.  I have a friend who served and one thing he's said that he used to be able to go just about anywhere and get a discount of some sort.  Now, he doesn't really bother to ask anymore since the practice has decreased so much.

Some of it is certainly due to the economy.  Companies need to recoup every last penny that they can to try and make a profit and a military discount cuts into that profit margin.  Some of it though seems to be more than that.  Some of it seems to stem from those against the far reach of the military arm.  Most of it, and this disturbs me, seems to be just a lack of appreciation anymore.

Whether you're against and for our military being active in other countries, regardless of how you felt about the battles overseas in recent years, it shouldn't diminish the things that the men and women go through who actually do serve.  Just because you hate why they're there shouldn't change how much you appreciate what they're doing.

A little while back I wrote about how some professional sports athletes should stop whining about their contracts and play because what they're doing pales in comparison to what a person in the military goes through.  I bet that most would shut up and enjoy playing the game again if they had to sit through a warzone making a fraction of what they make to play a game.  Athletes aren't "soldiers" and most wouldn't survive a week in boot camp, much less the front line of a warzone.

I still stand by that.

I raise the question again though.  Why do we have to have a holiday to show appreciation?  Shouldn't we be doing that every day?  Shouldn't every business offer some sort of perk to those who served in the military?  Why just one day?  Did these men and women not do enough to justify even a month?  I mean, not to take away from black history month, breast cancer awareness, and other causes that have entire months devoted to them, but shouldn't the military at least have one?  Hell, give each branch a month while we're at it.

Give the marines two months.

Put up banners, give them a parade, have sports teams show appreciation by allowing those who served to get in for at least half off the ticket price, if not more.  If you've been wounded, you get in free.  Let them sit in the luxury boxes for crying out loud, especially if they just spent the last several months sitting in the sand, baking in the desert heat while trying to avoid getting shot or blown up.  Put them on the field for the national anthem.  Introduce them before the game instead of the players.

Give them discounted meals at restaurants.  Give them deals on clothes and whatever else they want to buy.  Put them in the front of the line at amusement parks.  If they need medical help, give it to them for free, no questions asked.  After all, them getting shot, stabbed, or whatever else happened to them is allowing that hospital to operate as a free business.

When you see them on the street, give them a pat on the back (just watch out for wounds) and say thanks.  When you take care of them at a business, be sure to say how much you appreciate what they did.  If you see someone at a bar, buy them a drink or two.

Everything we can do, everything we can say, everywhere we can go is because of those who have and currently serve in the military.  Everything.  Without the military, who would we have sent over after 9/11?  Who would protect the border from invasion if we didn't have a military?  Without the military, most of the basic rights, if not all of them, wouldn't exist today.

Yet we spend too much time complaining about the military presence overseas.  We complain about what's happened in the middle east.  We show very little in appreciation until the calendar says we should.

I think that needs to change.  So stop a week from now and say thanks, not because Veteran's Day passed by recently, but because you can.

Otherwise someday, you might not be able to.