Honoring Those Who Serve

At my age, few things actually blow me away these days. Four kids raised to adulthood and now with an assortment of grandkids in the mix, not a lot surprises me.

Though there is one thing that fills me with awe and chokes me up every time – and has to do with those individuals we honor and celebrate today – Veterans Day 2015. Those fellow citizens of ours who are willing to put aside the comforts of hearth and home, to enter harm’s way for us. All to defend and preserve the lifestyle we all hold dear.

Our Freedom.

Brett, my insightful and brilliant grandson (but aren’t they all?) provided his take on this in an essay he wrote a few years ago. The one I framed and display in my living room. He was chosen to broadcast his work over the public address system at school. This is what he said.

“Every year on November 11^th the United States honors those who have served in our armed forces. The holiday originally marked the anniversary of the Armistice between the Allies and Germany. The signing effectively ended all fighting in World War I. However, in 1954 Congress approved a name change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. This was done as a tribute to honor and thank all veterans of all wars. On Veterans Day it is encouraged to fly flags at full staff in observance of the holiday. At this time, we would like to take a moment of silence to honor all the service men and women who have died.”

As he suggests, shall we take that moment?

 

 

Thank you. And thank them.

I would only add, as the Disabled American Veterans remind us – Freedom Is Not Free.

 

Just ask those who have sacrificed so much – for you and for me.

 

Margo Hoornstra

www.marghoornstra.com

A Day To Give Thanks For Their Service To A Veteran

By Margo Hoornstra

Today, I'd like to add my voice to a grateful throng of Americans with a heartfelt Thank You! to all those who served and sacrificed to protect us and our freedoms. All who serve in the military are heroes who have earned our respect, our support and our unfailing gratitude.

Veteran's Day honors them!

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the armistice was signed which ended the World War I hostilities between the Allied Nations and Germany. November 11th the following year was designated Armistice Day. A day set aside to thank veterans for their service. In 1954, Congress declared November 11th Veteran's Day for the same purpose.

 My husband, brother, father, brother-in-law, cousin, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather are or were veterans. Not career veterans, but ordinary citizens who fought to protect us and our freedoms. My oldest son, like his dad, serves in law enforcement.

Having that type of family history made it easy for me to create and craft Jonah Colt, a multi-decorated war veteran who brings residuals of wartime back to civilian life. Jonah suffers from PTSD. Silently, suffers, because he doesn't want to admit to what he sees as being weak.

He never set out to do much more than have a good time when someone like Cynthia Buckingham literally fell into his life. Alone in his living room on a Saturday, kicked back in the dark brown leather recliner, he’d sat for so long he hadn’t noticed the room growing darker as late afternoon gave way to early evening. A million dollar view through floor to ceiling windows had been a major selling point when he bought the top floor condo five years ago. But when was the last time he’d actually slowed down long enough to enjoy it?

 

The shades were drawn on a sight that was only worth seeing in the day time anyway. A man made forest was to the right, complete with squirrels, birds and other indigenous critters. And to the left, a precisely trimmed and pruned golf course stretched along the edge of the city. Also man made. Another one of the original attractions when he bought the place, thinking he’d like to learn to play. Then finding out, after a year of lessons, the pace of the sport bored him to tears. He didn’t like golf because he didn’t like golf. Period. Not because he was losing interest in life or in any other damned way becoming depressed or antisocial. Nor was he embarking on any excessive behaviors involving liquor, sex or drugs.

 

What could he say? Two out of three wasn’t bad.

 

The last swallow of the two fingers of high end vodka he’d indulged in gave off a subtle heat as the thick liquid slid down his throat and trickled into an empty stomach. As he moved to put his glass on the table, it slipped sideways on a clatter. With his legs pushed down to bring the chair upright, he steadied the tumbler to set it firmly on its base. Then snatched it up as he stood to walk out to the kitchen where he opened the dishwasher, dumped the glass onto the top shelf then slammed the door.

 

There. Evidence disposed of.

 

Turning back toward the living room, he stopped and shook his head. Why in hell did he feel so strongly he had to hide anything? Because alcohol abuse is a prime symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. Which made his over-reaction so much bullshit. One shot of hard liquor—his first in a couple of weeks—and prior to an evening out hardly meant he was a problem drinker. So what made him think maybe he was one? Run of the mill stressors happened to everyone. They were part of being human in a modern world. Part of being alive. What separated man from the other animals of the Earth. Which didn’t explain why he had begun to tear apart every detail of every recollection of his time in the warzone as if he was some psycho frickin’ time bomb set to go off at the slightest provocation.

 

Because he’d lied to her, and he couldn’t stand himself for it.

 

He and Cynthia, a counselor specializing in PTSD, have other issues as well. They have enjoyed, what they believe will be a one night stand, and only a one night stand.

Turns out life has other ideas.

Only If You Dare is now available on Amazon. Check it out with a click HERE Only If You Dare will be free on the KDP Select Program December 10-14, 2013.

 

My days to blog at the Roses of Prose are the 11th and 23rd.

 

More about me and my stories can be found at my WEBSITE or BLOG

 

 

  

THE SILENCE OF HEROES by Jerri Hines

November means Thanksgiving. It also means Veteran's Day. Friday, November 11, 2011. A day to honor our unsung heroes- those who have protected us so that we can enjoy our freedom. To all of those who have served- thank you.

Our lives as we know it-our freedoms we take for granted- are due to their sacrifices. Unsung heroes-most cases we don't even know their names.

When I write, I use inspiration. I have studied history and have used scenarios of deeds of others before me. Patriot Secrets was a tribute to the ones who put their lives on the line for the cause they believed would better the world around them. Not for themselves, but their children, family and neighbors. There is something within these people that sacrifice themselves for the better of others. Why are these special people so willing to lay their lives on the line for people they have never met? I believe there are several reasons- honor, duty, love, belief in God, and empathy.

Empathy. The technical meaning of empathy states the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. Empathy to me means someone who feels the pain, the hurt, the love, the fear of an another no matter of their race, ethnicity, or religion.

Today's blog is dedicated to one such person. Her name is Irena Sendler. Do you know her? I didn't until a couple of days ago. I was taken back because I take pride in knowing my history. If I had heard of her before, I would have definitely remembered. Why had I not heard of her? She even had a Hallmark movie made about her.

In the last couple of days, I have researched Irena Sendler. I have researched all I could find on her. It's hard. She only came to light here in America when students in Kansas did a Holocaust project and wrote a play, Life in a Jar. Someone left a comment on a blog I was reading about her that said it was important for every Jewish child to know her name. I beg to differ. I believe its important for all children to know her name.

Irena Sendler (Sendlerowa) was born in 1910 outside of Warsaw, Poland. Her father, a Catholic doctor, died of typhus caring for poor Jewish families. She was greatly influenced by her father and his deeds. When World War II began, she was a Senior Administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department. In 1939 the Germans invaded Poland. It became a crime to help any Jew. A crime punishable by death. Not by a trial. No, immediate- most shot dead. And the punishment not only extended to the person, but their family as well. The Germans threw over 400,000 (some reports say 500,000) Jews in a place that became known as the Warsaw Ghetto.

Irena risked her life along with ten other ladies within the Welfare Department. I wish I had their names. I don't. For five years she and the other ladies worked endlessly rescuing Jewish children from certain death. Over 2,500 children were saved by any means possible from the back of her ambulance, hidden under blankets, in sacks, in toolboxes, and even in coffins. She trained her dog to bark continuously to hid the cries of babies. Irena was not alone in her quest. The Catholic church helped her. She said the sisters never turned away a child. The priest created false baptisms records for the child's identity. Eventually, Irena began working with the underground resistance, Zegota.

In 1943 she was arrested, severely tortured and sentenced to death. She escaped only because the Zegota bribed an German guard. For the rest of the war she remained hidden and working with the underground resistance. Irena kept a record of all the children, who they were, their family and where they were placed hidden in jars buried in a neighbor's garden. Unfortunately after the war, few of the children were reunited with their families because most relatives of these children had been killed. Recognition for her work and the work of her companions did not come until after the Kansas students called attention to her work. When the war was over Poland was overtaken by the communists who hid their deeds because of the connection to the underground resistance. Some of the women were even imprisoned by the Communist.

Irena Sendler died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98. She has been noted to have said, "Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory."

Ellie Wiesel quoted "In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted as attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care..."

Heroes are often silent. It is up to us to give them the honor they deserve. The other day I read about a death of a fallen soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij, who had been deployed 14 times. He had even helped out in the rescue of Jessica Lynch. His only request in case of his death was that his family not talk to the media.

Most heroes emerge given their actions under extreme circumstances. They do not seek fame and glory. They do not request a reality show or book deal. They are simply people who make our world a better place to live... To all of these people thank you...

To learn more about Irena Sendler I have left the links I have found and used for this blog and also the link to the obituary of Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer B. Domeij.

Moral Heroes      Irena Sendler An Unsung Hero   Army Ranger Kristoffer B. Domeij 


Today's book give away- PDF copy of Patriot Secrets.