March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

This Veterans Day is a day for us to remember, to honor, and to learn. To remember the sacrifices and hardships borne by the men and women who answered their country’s call during an hour of need. To honor those who paid the ultimate price for their dedication to duty and their love of country. To learn what it means to be an American from the example of those who have marched before us.

Ever since the United States kindled in people everywhere a desire for self-government and freedom with our Declaration of Independence in 1776, the skeptics of the world had argued that a free people — governing themselves democratically — wouldn’t be able to stand up to a country that used terror, fear and the dehumanizing power of a modern police state to impose its will upon the weak.

Fifty years ago, during the World War II, a generation of Americans proved for all time that no despot and no police state could stand up to a free people, united in their determination to preserve the values they cherish.

This Veterans Day, we are paying special homage to the men and women of the World War II generation. At the time, they thought they were only defending the American way of life, but now, looking back, it’s clear they were really fighting to change the world.

For the United States, World War II was a trial by fire that lasted 45 months. Would we really stand up for the things we said we believed in? Would ordinary citizens risk their well-being for the sake of future generations and for fellow democracies overseas? The answer was a resounding “yes,” and the world has become a different place.

During that 45-month ordeal, more than 16 million Americans put on the uniforms of the U.S. armed forces. These Americans come from the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta and the potato fields of northern Maine, from Park Avenue and Appalachia, from farms and from immigrant homes. In service of their country, during those 45 terrible months, more than 400,000 of the men and women of the U.S. armed forces died.

As we look back on the 219 years since this country’s birth with the Declaration of Independence, three crucial times, which helped define us as people, stand out. There was the drafting of the U.S. Consitution, there was the Civil War and there was World War II, when we proved for all time that the men and women of a free country would willingly risk all they had to preserve the fruits of freedom and democracy.

Today, we owe all that we are and all that we have to the great Americans who stood tall to meet the challenge of those cruicial events in our history.

Today, if we can enjoy breathing in a clean, free air, if we can feel the warm touch of the sun on our faces, if our view stretches to the farthest horizons, it’s because of the men and women of the World War II generation.

I personally would like to say thank you and may God bless you one and all. Donald E. Cole Jr. Maine State Commander The American Legion


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