Our Youngest Vets

Happy Veterans Day to the ones who serve too. I’m talking about the children of veterans. I’m talking about the children of Memorial Day too. It’s fitting that we have a holiday to honor the service members who come home and the ones who do not. And it’s fitting that on Veterans Day we stop for a moment to say thank you to the children of servicemembers. Whatever we might think about America’s current wars, whatever we might think about the use of force or the flexing of military muscle now or at any other time, the policies and actions of our government are not their doing. The consequences of those policies and actions are, however, another matter.

I wish I could say that on this Veteran’s Day, the nation would pledge that fathers and mothers in military service would not be deployed so often or so long. I wish I could say that we pledge to make sure that whenever families have to move, children don’t lose ground in school. I wish I could say that everyone who meets military children will say how proud they are of them and their deployed parents instead of wondering aloud why in the world anyone would want to do the things soldiers are sometimes called upon to do. I wish I could say that if their parents come home wounded in heart and body that the help they and their families need will be there. I wish I could say that there is no need to be afraid or depressed. I wish I could say our wars will end honorably and soon. I wish I could say that whatever comes, we as a nation will not forget them.

I am glad I am getting to know military children a little better in the months I have been blogging at Xanthe’s World. It's a means, however small, to try to be there for these often overlooked young people who fight their own battles because their parents have been called to fight ours. Veterans Day is not a holiday associated with resolutions, but that doesn't mean it can't be. Please join me, if you are among the 98 percent unaffected personally by this war, in finding your own way to serve too.