The timing of today's ceremonies to honor our veterans in Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester and Essex is etched in stone, with the various programs centering on or culminating around the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
That, of course, is the precise anniversary of the signing of the World War I Armistice, ending the first truly global war in 1918.
But there are other appropriate aspects of the timing of Veterans Day as well — notably the fact that it leads, appropriately, into our season of Thanksgiving, and because it almost always falls the week after our elections — local, national or both.
While we pause today to salute and thank our veterans for their service on behalf of our freedoms, it's a bit disconcerting to note that, a week ago, just 25.7 percent of Gloucester's registered voters chose their local leaders and approved a change of Civil Service policy — meaning 74 percent chose not to bother exercising their right to vote. And it's troubling that just 7 percent of Essex voters turned out Monday night to make some key spending and policy decisions that will affect the 93 percent of that town's registered voters who stayed home.
So, as Veterans Day dawns today, we're seeing more and more signs that citizens are indeed becoming more and more apathetic about exercising important rights for which those veterans have fought and, obviously, in many cases, given their lives.
Please, don't let that apathy show through today.
If at all possible, take the time to get out and attend one of the Veterans Day ceremonies, parades and other events that give us all a chance to offer thanks to our veterans of all ages.
Today's programs around Cape Ann will include members of "The Greatest Generation" who fought together to change the course of history during World War II. It includes those whose service during the Korean War — noted all too often as "The Forgotten War" — should never be forgotten. It includes those who fought — in many cases, against their own will, thanks to the Selective Service draft — in the fields and rice paddies of Vietnam, only to be shamefully scorned when they returned home to return to a nation that grossly underappreciated their service for years. It includes those who served during and fought in battles and military operations in such places as Panama, El Salvador, Somalia, Bosnia and elsewhere.
It includes those who fought in the 1991 Desert Storm that engulfed Iraq and Kuwait — and it includes those who have served and fought in the first war of the new millennium — the War on Terror — in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some of those who participate in today's parades and ceremonies served their country more than 60 years ago; others, whether reservists in their 40s, or male and female soldiers in their 20s, may have returned home from one of the fronts last spring, last month — or even last week.
But all have served for the same purpose — to rid the world of political and military dangers, and to preserve our way of life in a country built on freedoms giving us the right to speak out, the right to play a role in our local, state and national leadership, the right to challenge what we view as injustice, the right to make choices that are simply not available to those living in so many parts of the world.
If you attend one or more of the Veterans Day ceremonies today, don't simply lend your hands in polite applause for the speakers, or those veterans who participate. If you do make it to one of the programs — and even if you don't — take the time and show the thought to reach out and say, "thanks."
For, 15 days before we celebrate Thanksgiving, today is a day for offering thanks that, in far too many cases, is overdue and too often left unsaid — thanks to the men and women who had the courage to give up a portion of their life so that we may be able to maintain the quality of life we have in America — and specifically in Cape Ann.
With that, we offer our sincere thanks to all of our veterans for all they have done — and to all of our neighbors serving in the military today.
Your sacrifice will never be forgotten — on Veterans Day, or any other day of the year.
