VETERANS DAY AMERICA 🙌

Today was Veteran’s Day, and I had the high privilege of speaking to the students and faculty of the Valentine Independent School District. For anyone who doubts the effectiveness of a small, rural school and what they accomplish on a day to day basis, I suggest some time spent here.

Perhaps I am prejudiced in that respect, as I am the product of some rather small schools myself. But to see the involvement, the courtesy, the respect and the mastery of the building blocks of education, even at grade school level, is something to be experienced.

It is not millions upon millions of dollars spent for buildings and overinflated sheepskins on a wall, denoting worn out platitudes with no real meaning. It is the simple hard work on the part of faculty and students, and the backing of involved parents who truly love and care for their children.

All, as well as the community of Valentine itself, should be proud of what I saw there today.

Thank you for having me!

(Photograph: Ben, Trooper Thompson, THP Alpine and Superintendent/Principal Debbie Engle, Valentine ISD
Photo Courtesy of Nancy Donaldson)

And for those who might be interested in what I had to say, the transcript goes as follows:

“Good Morning, and thank you for inviting me. I consider it an honor to be here, and to talk with you a bit about the meaning of Veteran’s Day.

But first, I would like to recognize the veterans in our audience; ladies and gentlemen, would you please stand up?

Young folks, you see these people? Let me tell you something: They are the reason you aren’t living as a slave subject to another country or foreign power.

They have defended you and your rights as an American citizen in places which most people can’t even spell, much less find on a map.

Veterans, if you would remain standing, I have another question for our audience:

If you have a grandfather, an aunt, an older brother or sister, or anyone else in your family who has served in our Armed Forces, would you please stand?

Now, if you have a friend, or an acquaintance, or someone you know who was in the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, Coast Guard or Space Force, would you stand?

Finally, if there are any high school students who have already signed up for military service, would you please stand?

Thank you. Now everyone take a good look around and see how important Veteran’s Day is to the citizens of Valentine, Texas. Each one of you has a special reason to be here this morning, and to be thankful. I ask that you keep that in mind.

When Ms. Donaldson asked me to come, my first thought was ‘What do I talk about?’ There are so many things which need saying about Veteran’s Day.

I know your teachers have talked to you about it; about its history and why we recognize this day. But I want to go a little deeper than that, and visit with you about something we veterans hold very dear; the American Flag.

This needs to be discussed, because these days there is a certain disrespect for that flag by people who should know better.

The Flag is the symbol of our country. When you are in the military and the flag is raised in the morning, you stand and salute it.

When you pass by an American Flag displayed anyplace, you salute it.

When evening comes and it is lowered at sunset, you stand and salute it.

As a member of the military, that flag is there for you constantly. When you go to a foreign shore, you take that flag with you. If you are called upon to go to war, you carry that flag into combat.

And when your friends, your mentors, your brothers die fighting for that flag and what it represents; their broken bodies are placed in a casket and covered by that same flag on their final journey back home.

Now we have some folks who seem to think they should disrespect that Flag as well as our National Anthem. I am sure you have already heard about this; maybe even saw it happen.

Many of them are professional sports figures who make more money in a year than your parents or teachers might see in a lifetime. I might add most anyone serving in the military, too.

Let me be clear here; it is not illegal for them to do so. However, just because something isn’t against the law doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. In this case; it is incredibly stupid, wrong and outright ignorant.

Don’t misunderstand me: I strongly believe in the ability to protest peaceably. It is your American birthright and specified in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. I have spent most of my life learning about those rights, and protecting them as best as I know how.

But there are times, very important times, when we should all remember that whatever our background, last name or color of skin, we are all Americans.

And those things that separate us are never as strong as those precious bonds which we have in common.

When we stand for the National Anthem, and when we pay respect to Our Flag, such is one of those times I am speaking of.

Just the briefest of moments when we all need to put aside our individual differences, and show the world that we are all Americans.

Question: When the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, does anyone recall what went up immediately among all that death and destruction?

When a flood, or a tornado, or a hurricane, or a great fire occurs, or any other disaster, what is the first thing someone puts up to show our unity as Americans?

There is yet another example I know of far too well, and which I have already mentioned. When an American military person dies, what covers their casket?

Why? To honor them and show that we as a people are united in our grief for the loss of their life.

Folks, in late October of 1983, over 240 flag-draped coffins were flown back from a hellhole called Beirut, Lebanon. Each one contained a dead American, many of whom were friends and acquaintances of mine.

It was a black day for our nation, and the saddest day of my life.

But you know what? There was no way to tell which casket contained my friends and the other Marines I knew, because they all looked the same.

You see, that Flag made them all equal, even in death. No matter what their last name was, what their color of skin, how rich or poor they were, whether they were Democrat or Republican, or what part of the country they came from.

They were all Americans killed in the service of their country and for your freedoms; all united in death.

Are you beginning to understand why that Flag means so much to a veteran?

And why it should mean so much to us all?

Another quick example…
E PLURIBUS UNUM
“Out of Many, One”

This is on our coins. Check any US coin in your pocket and those words will be on it.

They mean that no matter what our differences might be, we are one people. Like in the Pledge of Allegiance; “under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

Indivisible: That means cannot be divided.

Liberty: You should all know what that means by now, and there is no sweeter word in any language. It’s the kind of word that sets off fireworks in your mouth whenever you say it.

Now look at your hand…

There are many different bones, tendons and muscles in your hand. All different in shape, size and function.

Separately they can’t do much. They are too small, too weak, too easily broken.

But when they work together, they do marvelous things. They make:
The clothes you wear.
The food you eat.
The home you live in.

All the technological advances, the machines, the art, the literature, the progress of civilization itself; all made by the hands of man working together.

And when you shape your hand just right, it makes a fist. That fist is the Armed Forces of the United States of America, and it protects everything else made by that same hand.

There was a quote by Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War; something he said not too long before Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. “We must all hang together, or we shall surely all hang separately.”

Do you understand what Franklin meant when he said that? Because if all the individual parts of that hand don’t work together, it is not much good for anything.

You must also understand that what he said is just as true today as it was over 200 years ago. We Americans must stick together, because if we go our different ways that hand will be crushed.

When we stand for The Flag and for the Star Spangled Banner, we are showing that no matter what our differences might be; there are precious, almost sacred times when we must show the world that we stand ‘united’.

Just like the name of our country ‘The United States of America’.

So the next time you see someone dishonor Our Flag and not stand for our National Anthem, think hard about what I have told you today, and why it is so wrong for them to do so.

Then ask yourself two simple questions: 1. Can any of those people name one nation better than what we have here? 2. And if they can; why aren’t they already there?

Our Country is hanging in the balance of history and an uncertain future. You young people are our nation’s future, good or bad.

In a few short years, the decisions in what happens to that future will be up to you. I would advise to start preparing for them now, because for your own sakes you don’t want to make the wrong ones.

And to our veterans, thank you for your service and your sacrifices.

I salute you!

Thank you again for having me here today, and may God bless America!

Ben H. English
Alpine, Texas
USMC: 1976-1983
THP: 1986-2008
HS Teacher: 2008-2010

Author of ‘Yonderings’
‘Destiny’s Way’
‘Out There: Essays on the Lower Big Bend’
‘The Uvalde Raider’
‘Black And White: Tales of the Texas Highway Patrol’

Facebook: Ben H. English

Webpage: benhenglish.com
‘Graying but still game’