I was thinking about the reason for our celebration of Memorial day over this past week end. \u00a0And I think it’s good and right that we honor those men and women who have given their lives in the service of our country, but I wonder if we spend enough time honoring those who served, were maimed in some way, physically or emotionally, and who still have to live to the best of their ability with little help from the rest of us.<\/p>\n
Those men and women are too often forgotten, I fear. Many of them live very anonymous lives, in fact. \u00a0The streets and alley ways of many cities are peopled by the homeless who suffered severely in Vietnam and Korea and now Iraq and Afghanistan. \u00a0And they have yet to find a way to live among us.<\/p>\n
I just listened to the book, Unbroken,<\/strong><\/em> by Laura Hillenbrand. \u00a0It was the true story of Louis Zamperini, a POW fighter bombardier in Japan in WWII. \u00a0His treatment and the conditions in the camp were so deplorable and unimaginably cruel, that it was hard to listen to at times and impossible to truly imagine. \u00a0He survived however, and still lives in Torrance, California. \u00a0At 93, he’s one of the lucky ones who was able to reclaim his life but not easily. \u00a0No one, after going through a war, reclaims their life, state-side, easily.<\/p>\n This post is not meant to be political, in any way. \u00a0I am not preaching against war, but I do wish, as a nation, \u00a0we could move less quickly onto the battlefield. \u00a0The repercussions for families, whether their loved one lives or dies, are so painful. \u00a0Because of that, my intention in this post is to ask that we pay special homage to all of those who served and survived to come home. Let them know how much their service meant; let them know we’d like to help them in any way we can; let them know that they still matter very much to all of us.<\/p>\n And while you are at it, let the average Joe on every street corner know they matter too by flashing them a smile or a helping hand. \u00a0There is simply too little attention being paid to every one. \u00a0Let’s see if if we can’t change how we honor all people in what remains of this year. \u00a0Starting now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was thinking about the reason for our celebration of Memorial day over this past week end. \u00a0And I think it’s good and right that we honor those men and women who have given their lives in the service of our country, but I wonder if we spend enough time honoring those who served, were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-musings"],"yoast_head":"\n