The Best Way to Honor Fallen Veterans
“Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
–John 15:13
This week, as our nation plans its Memorial Day observance, Nancy Model shared some comments from one of the county commissioners for whom she worked while employed in Santa Rosa County, Florida. His name was Don Salter, and he served in Vietnam in the Army Combat Infantry. He also had two brothers who served in Viet Nam. One didn’t come home. The other one died years later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, attributed to PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Veterans are at a higher risk of developing PTSD due to their extreme experiences in combat; it profoundly affects approximately 7% of our veterans.
Nancy remembers what Commissioner Salter told his county workers and the people of Santa Rosa County, “The best way to honor fallen veterans,” he said, “is to be the kind of American worth dying for.”
On this Sunday, let us not only remember and honor our fallen heroes, but let us also commit ourselves once again to the priceless democratic American values of liberty, equality, and justice for all. May we be people characterized by the highest human qualities of integrity, honesty, empathy, generosity, love, compassion, courage, and humility–that is, “the kind of Americans worth dying for.”
Grace and Peace,
Callie
