Presidential Proclamation Declares November 11, 2009 Veterans Day, National Holiday
Friday President Barack Obama signed a proclamation declaring November 11, 2009 as Veterans Day. In a statement released by the White House, President Obama said that “American veterans deserve our deepest appreciation and respect.”
“Caring for our veterans is more than a way of thanking them for their service,” the President remarked, “it is an obligation to our fellow citizens who have risked their lives to defend our freedom.”
The Veterans Day Proclamation suggests that on November 11, 2009, Americans should participate in programs and activities that honor all veterans.
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Tracey Ricks Foster
Veteran’s day
For many Americans, Veteran’s Day passes quietly between the hoopla of Halloween and the warm nostalgia of Thanksgiving. In that way, the reserved nature of Veteran’s Day beautifully captures the quiet heroism of America’s war heros. However, it is also this quiet heroism that makes us vulnerable to forgetting how astonishingly important our men and women have been in protecting our interests as a country and in protecting our freedom. Regardless of any ambiguity of the purpose or politics of today’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there remains an undisputed and profound respect for our war heros that resonates throughout America.
For me, the arrival of this year’s Veteran’s Day has stirred the emotions of deep appreciation towards military men and women and also leads me to ask myself an important question – am I living out my life in a way that justifies the pain, hardship and suffering that so many people have gone through to protect and preserve this freedom?
It is clear, that as a citizen sitting on the sidelines of today’s war, I will never fully understand the intensity of what soldiers endure. In many ways it seems like life goes on in the US as if we are not at war at all or as if this war is in some other world far apart from our daily routine. To honor the sacrifice and hardship of our war heroes we can make every effort to understand their experiences and stories.
This Veteran’s Day, I plan on honoring those who served our country by hearing their stories. The documentary films below tell the stories of vastly different foreign wars including accounts from WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These SnagFilms offer a way to engage and inform vast audiences of the lives of our war heroes.
Ross
November 2, 2009 at 9:12 pm