AMERICAN VETERNS DAY -ESSAY
There is no greater sacrifice any citizen within this country could incur than to bring your own life under jeopardy for fellow Americans they may never know from, hear from, or be thanked for. It is a heavy burden for this country’s veterans to fight enemies abroad entirely in light of the interest of a nation that is compelled to give power to the people. For many of these brave men and women in uniform, what they do is always taken as contingent upon the government towards the men and woman that are enjoying the gifts of being recognized for who they are, able to speak their mind, and be praised and coveted for staying true to themselves. What many Americans that are tried and true in their service to this country are aware of now is that the liberties and freedoms that constitute their good and bad days were earned by the even worse days that veterans have endured to ensure that their kids and grandkids, as well as their friends, their peers, their lovers, and their kids and grandkids of those who would never care for them to see a brighter future. There really isn’t much of a better way to describe what their ordeals have done for the rest of us.
When I started my junior year of high school, our class had a new social studies teacher. Last year, while I was a sophomore, we wished the best of luck to our last social studies teacher as he and his family flew to New York for a better life. As a veteran, fighting in Iraq and losing friends and later family in his life, our new social studies teacher turned out to be a living example of the sacrifices a veteran has to make on behalf of his students, along with his wife and three kids. Now, he enjoys the pleasures of teaching and making the lives of his students greater and more fulfilling during class, and dreams of being a principal someday. I feel awed and inspired to be around his daily example.
As of today, our teacher is a guy almost everybody at school knows, and he really does his best to make every class exciting, fun, and even interesting, doing a very good job of it. Some of his in-class mantras include “People die, life goes on”, “Zero!” when catching a student pretending to act smart about something, and of course, his favorite slogan of Economics, “Mr. Snoddy is cheap, and you should be too!” He has gotten involved in many school affairs, and always lets his class know when something interesting is going to happen at the school. He takes it upon himself to get in contact with kids’ folks, letting them know how their son or daughter is doing overall. In a public charter with a great number of guys, and girls, who do not take their learning, as seriously as they do their fun, he still believes he has something more to owe to them.
On his first day, I was still thinking about how excited many students seemed to be during last semester’s social studies. During the spring of 2008, I myself was caught in the new guy’s antics, and his daily news-roundups from the Web, where he showed many of us things I could not easily forget, like that bus driver scene where two girls were having a good fight, as well as a short Indian bodybuilder that also took headlines. A lot of kids liked Mr. Carter for who he was during those classes, me included. But I never did connect with him. He tended to talk about random topics that very well got with many of the students’ interests. They weren’t of my own, though. He had nothing to owe to me, or to any one of my classmates. So instead of pitching in, I focused on the assignments, finished all of my homework, and earned an ‘A’ before moving on. I was determined to make a bigger mark than within the box of a classroom.
Meanwhile, a world away, my current teacher was busy supervising a training regiment in a battalion in Iraq. A lot of soldiers were training hard, climbing rope, leaping over walls, and enduring serious mental beatings from the mouths of their leaders. Some of the kids were just a few years older than me now. But they were clearly determined to do their best. In the fall semester, Mr. Snoddy, dressed in lieutenant uniform, showed us a video that showed off the hard work those guys was putting in. It gave me a lot of motivation for what was I to do with my life. I knew that I couldn’t let anything besides I hold me back. Even now, with one of the most challenging academic coursework still in front of me, I cannot let up my dreams and hold them off. It is my job to do the best that I can do every single day. Only then can I do the same on behalf of people that I want to help.
What more do we owe our veterans? This, I’ll admit, is one of the toughest questions I could ever ask to myself, or to anyone. They have given life and limb to keep us safe from those that would want to do harm on American soil. Some have lost part of their sanity, or killed themselves by their own hand fighting wars for our sake. Yet there is hardly enough we can pay them back for it. Worse, we aren’t doing enough to pay them back. Some of our brave veterans are now among the homeless in cities across America. What is wrong with that? That, again, is too tough a question to ask.
So instead of asking this question, I say we go and thank the veterans we know for their service. Just let them know in person that what they do is important for everyone in the USA. For many of us at our age, it may feel that it’s just not enough. I know that all too well. Many times I try to thank my mom and dad for how hard they try to give me better opportunities than they had. But they deserve much more for their efforts. And so do our troops.
How many of our friends ever take themselves for granted? I know that plenty of mine don’t even recognize me sometimes. Just this year, I ran for Vice-President of the student council, only to lose by a single vote. While it was to my benefit to hear from guys and girls that they were going to vote for me, I wasn’t sure of how long their support was going to last. Many of my peers in high school are spending more and more of their time with their friends, having the same old good time. It is clear that they don’t realize how long it will last. On the other hand, a lot of people abroad are wondering if they are going to eat, or if they too could actually be supported and appreciated for whom they happen to be. Someone has to give them what they are owed. If our veterans aren’t going to do it, then who would?
Every day, it is our veterans that come back from all the fighting they do for Americans totally involved in their own lives. If our veterans never did come back, we probably wouldn’t even realize it unless told by the media. They, in recent days, have become the voices of our democracy. Instead of hearing from soldiers and troops out on the battlefield, we hear from news anchors and celebrity advocates. Isn’t it obvious that they only do this on our behalf because no single one of us would consent to go outside of our own social circles? For about as long as there is somebody we love dearly to hold our hand and laugh at us even we feel down, there is something that they are giving to us. Well, what is it that we are giving to our veterans? Is it true that for all their work, they in turn get none of the conveniences of the sort that we enjoy every day? They’re clearly missing something that the rest of us possess. We owe no more to our veterans than to admit this to them.
With all the struggles people are going through everywhere, there is always something that I owe to everybody, and I cannot truly be satisfied with myself until I try to give every person in need what they deserve. After all, that’s what our veterans do every day on our behalf. And they would like nothing less than for us to do the same, in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our communities. Too many of us expect something for less than what we get. Right now, Mr. Snoddy is still working hard, filing out the work that every one of his students in high school have done for his classes. Yet, he’s being respected and endeared only because of what he expects from us for a little too much more in return. After all that’s he been through, that should definitely be the other way around. 