By Craig Andresen – Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio
Veterans Day.
A singular day set aside to honor those who have served this nation, the cause of freedom and liberty throughout the world, and here at home.
One day, when we should all come together and offer our thanks to those who, throughout the decades and centuries, have preserved our freedom, our rights and our way of life.
Just one day?
No…
That’s simply not right.
Do we enjoy our liberty just one day of the year?
Do we live in freedom only on the 11th of November every year?
Are so many others, in far flung places around the world free for just a specific 24 hours according to a date on a calendar?
Certainly not.
Why then do we celebrate Veterans Day on only a single day? Are our nation’s Veterans, both past and present not Veterans on the other 364 days of the year?
November 11th, is Veterans Day and sadly, far too many didn’t even know it while others only fleetingly paid their respects. A mention here, a thanks there, a post in social media. Yes, many do thank our men and women in uniform at every opportunity and thank those whom they meet who have served, whenever they can and THAT is exactly how it should be.
Every day.
Every time there is an opportunity.
Sadly, in today’s America, we find ourselves on at least a second generation of those who feel entitled to ev
erything others have earned, and even that’s not enough. They believe themselves to be entitled to the wages others have earned, to the material things those wages, not their own can purchase, and entitled to cradle to grave coddling by a system paid for by the American taxpayer.
Sadder still, is the fact that the entitled class seems to believe they are entitled to the freedoms paid for in blood, by those who have served…those they so readily disrespect.
Our Veterans.
These entitlement snowflakes simply don’t understand that their right to snivel, whine, complain and even to take a knee in a show of abject disrespect only exists because of those who have, for more than two centuries, worn the uniforms of our nation’s military, and served with honor.
Through World Wars, police actions, campaigns in jungles and deserts…through shooting wars and cold wars…and in places whose names no longer even exist on a map…our veterans have held the world’s demons from our doors, and chased the demons who have threatened others back through the gates of hell.
The notion of disrespecting those who have served our country, and thus served all of us…sickens me.
I have always considered it more than my duty to thank our Veterans as best I can…it is my honor to do so. In my life, and I suspect in all your lives as well, whether they were your relatives, your friends, co-workers, social acquaintances or simply random folks met in passing, we have all known or met far too many Veterans to name or count.
The number isn’t important…it’s the cost of showing them our respect that matters, and that cost is nothing. What does it cost really, to say thanks, or to shake someone’s hand, or to sit for a while and hear their stories?
Nothing.
What, in the grand scheme of things, is the cost of a meal in an airport, or a fast food joint when we encounter those who are either wearing the uniforms or who we recognize as someone who once did so proudly?
Nothing.
The cost to us is nothing, but the cost to them has been, and continues to be great.
Freedom is not free.
Ask yourselves this…what has your freedom, your liberty, your rights and your safety cost you in the past hour? Roughly the same as it would cost you to offer your thanks to a 
Veteran…but that past hour has cost the life of a Veteran to suicide.
2012 statistical analysis showed that 22 Veterans every day committed suicide…that’s about 1 per hour…and statistics show that 65% of all Veterans who took their own life last year were above the age of 50.
While those numbers have improved, thanks to better outreach and coping programs…the current numbers are still too high. We have asked our men and women in uniform to perform nearly impossible tasks, in some of the most dangerous places on earth, and against the odds due to the rules of engagement put into place by politicians who seem to take a great deal of delight in disrespecting our Veterans, and when they come home, inept government systems at VA hospitals are failing those who have served with honor.
While systemic problems that have been thrust upon our Veterans are hard to fix, they are being fixed. What’s harder to fix are the attitudes of those individuals…the least of our society who seize every opportunity to show their disdain for our Veterans…which are the bigger issue in the bigger picture.
A few years ago, David Mascriota, a liberal fool and agitator wrote a piece where he 
besmirched “Our childish insistence on calling soldiers heroes,” and wrote…”It’s been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom. Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism must end.”
In his mind, not since WWII has the American soldier fought for freedom and, in his mind, not today’s soldiers, nor any since the end of WWII protected his freedom.
The obvious question one should pose to Mascriota is…If not the soldiers…who DOES protect your freedom?
Who, Mascriota?
Politicians?
Professors?
The left wing mainstream media propagandists…like you?
Radicals who would rather advocate anarchy than a Constitutional Republic or those like yourself who just can’t see the necessity of a strong and ready military?
Were it not for those who serve, in wars or peace time, American would have ceased being free long ago, and freedom around the world would have lost its best guardian.
Mascriota believes that regarding those who have served with honor, in the uniform of our nation as heroes…is childish and it must stop.
“Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism” he calls it.
Nobody here forces anything of the sort, and patriotism is not compulsory…not in this country but there ARE countries where the MILITARY is used to do those very things. Sadly, David Mascriota and his foolish ilk can’t see the difference.
I would challenge the ilk of Mascriota to live their lives in places where the military doesn’t garner the respect or fear of our military, or in some 3rd world hell hole where the military acts to deny freedom and liberty from the populous and DOES make “patriotism” compulsory. Let’s hear his take on our heroes then.
Those who deny the heroic actions of those willing to put their lives on the line for freedom and liberty simply don’t know the meaning of the word “hero.”
A few images that you have seen in this article are taken from a video.
A very special video.
The boy is 11 years old and his father took him to Normandy several years ago, for the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
The 11 year old spent several days at the cemetery teaching those who came to pay their respects about just three soldiers, paratroopers buried there…three soldiers whom he had researched but on D-Day itself, the local authorities would not allow him on the hallowed grounds.
So…what did he do?
He walked down to the beach. Omaha Beach. He unfurled an American flag in the stiff breeze and, gazing across the Channel, he stood at attention…the way his heroes did and he saluted…the way his heroes did.
That 11 year old boy…wearing a replica of a WWII, 3rd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division uniform…just like the uniform of his heroes, stood there, at full attention, at full salute, for an hour and a half…
To honor his heroes.
In doing so, he not only honored those who served and died on Omaha Beach 70 plus years ago but he also honored those who served before and have served after that war.
Our heroes.
If patriotism and honoring our military by regarding those who have served with honor to 
protect our freedom and liberty is childish…so be it…as children so often see passed the addle minded nonsense of adults whose ideology is decidedly in opposition to the truth.
My heroes have always worn our nation’s uniforms.
They always will.
Even if they are but 11 years old.
Copyright © 2017 Craig Andresen / thenationalpatriot.com
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!
Today, Friday, November 10th from 7 to 9pm on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss the misdirected call for more gun control; a salute to veterans; the Hollywood distraction; and important news of the day.
Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history
