A Veterans Day Promise:
Dr. Mike Cunningham's Veterans Day Message
On Veterans Day we pause to honor the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States. As an Army chaplain, I have sat with Soldiers in moments of pride and in moments of grief. I have seen what service asks of a person and of a family. Veterans Day is not only a day of thanks. It is a day to remember what we owe.
Gratitude is easy to say and hard to practice. A grateful nation keeps its promises: timely health care, real support for families, a serious answer to veteran suicide, and a transition from service to civilian life that treats people as the leaders they are rather than as a line in a budget.
Veterans also have something to teach the rest of us. They know how to work beside people they did not choose, toward a mission bigger than themselves. That is exactly the habit our politics has lost. If we want a less divided country, we might start by listening to the people who have already learned to serve together.
What a Grateful Nation Owes
Keep the Promises:
Benefits earned in service are obligations, not favors. Delays and red tape are a failure of honor as much as of administration.
Care for the Whole Person:
Mental health, moral injury and the strain on families deserve the same seriousness as physical wounds.
Welcome Veterans into Leadership:
Communities, companies and government are stronger when veterans lead in them. Make the path easy.
Teach the Next Generation:
Children should know what service means and why it matters. Gratitude is learned at home and in the classroom.
A Closing Word
To every veteran reading this: thank you. Not only for what you did, but for who you became in doing it. Our country is better because you served, and it will be better still if we learn from you. That is the promise I make this Veterans Day.
Comments