(jennyfly says that I can post since it's after midnight my time and is Nov. 11 in most of the rest of the world already. Whee!)
Today is Veterans’ Day, or Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, or whatever it is you’d like to call it, for the United States and the Commonwealth countries. It’s a day to step back and think about things we might not otherwise like to think about—war, death, fighting—the fact that we are not, as a world, at peace, and to remember those who give their time, talents, energy, and occasionally their lives, in the service of the civilians of their countries.
I don’t think about this often.
It used to be that I would drive past trees tied with yellow ribbon, or see signs that said SUPPORT OUR TROOPS when they were occupying countries I wasn’t entirely sure we needed to be occupying, or where I disagreed with the choices of the politicians who sent them there. I was happy not to think too much about the military, wherever it was. No one in my immediate family is in the service anyway. I mean, my dad’s brother was stationed in Japan during Vietnam, but he came back just fine and I never knew him very well anyway before he died of cancer a few years ago.
And then one day I was walking in one of my favorite places in my city, the World War II Memorial, whose only fault is that I’m not allowed to wade in it, and I had one of those BFOs: blinding flashes of the obvious.
I don’t think about it because others do.
I don’t spend time worrying if my loved one is going to return to me alive, or in one piece, or worry about what kind of mental distress they may be in. I don’t fear for my own life and health working in a warring location. I don’t see the utter destruction that war causes to all sides up front and in my face—it’s printed on a newspaper page, or on CNN, or on the internet, where I can safely ball it up, turn it off, or navigate back to ADF. And that’s possible because there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands who are facing those realities on my behalf.
So I’ve shifted. I still don’t always agree with where and why and how, and I think that’s part of being an active citizen of any country. But I do stop and think about the who. I’m fortunate to live in a city where opportunities to remember are plentiful—stepping off the subway in front of the Navy Memorial, waving at the dressed Marine outside the White House when I’m headed for Chinatown via Pennsylvania Avenue, walking past the Vietnam Wall on a crisp fall afternoon. But if you don't need to think, like me, and it’s not in your face, and you don’t have the visual reminder often to think about those who serve your country, whichever country it may be, I urge you, wherever you are, to take a second today to think about it, to honor, and to thank.
To those of you wonderful women (and men) in this fandom who live your lives in the service of your countries, to those of you who are family members of those who are and have been in the military, let me say this from the bottom of my heart—
Thank you for your service.
If you wish, feel free to post a note in honor of those in the service, whatever country you might be from. And if you are in the service or have a family member who is and feel comfortable being recognized, allow us to show our gratitude.