Keller @ Large: Why We Honor Our Veterans
BOSTON (CBS) - Veterans Day, the federal holiday we observe on this day each year in honor of all members of our armed services, is a day off for only about twenty percent of us. But while it's great if you have the time Tuesday to attend a Veterans Day ceremony, or if you're one of the many businesses who express their gratitude by offering special gifts or discounts to veterans, you don't need to do any of those things to honor the meaning of this day.
Anyone can pause for a moment to honor our veterans by reflecting on exactly what it is these men and women do.
Once upon a time, if you hadn't seen war firsthand or suffered the agony of losing a loved one to war, you might go through life without ever truly understanding what war is.
Not anymore.
Television and graphic modern-day movies have made the true nature of war unavoidably clear. While the understandable human impulse to bomb savages who would slaughter innocent civilians back to the hell they crawled out of lives on, it's getting harder and harder to find voices calling for our troops to be sent in to one of these killing zones.
We now have vivid images to attach to the messages sent by the likes of Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman, who once wrote that "war is cruelty, there is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over"; or the wisdom of British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who observed: "War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
Nonetheless, out of patriotism, or a sense of duty, or other motives, people still step forward to fight evil, protect freedom, serve a cause higher than themselves.
That's why we honor our veterans – not because we love war, but because we love those who take on its horror on our behalf.
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You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
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