Here's My Point: They Don't Do It for the Money

By Ron Fitzwater

Saturday is Armed Forces Day in the good old USA, not that many people really notice: do you know of any Armed Forces Day activities going on, any parades, barbecues, a bike race or anything? Me neither.

I looked on the inter-web, as Joel Frady would say, and still found nothing. Well, to be totally honest, I found a few events in places like Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Mississippi, but nothing closer to home.

I even looked on the official White House web page to see what the current administration has planned and again, nothing. My search on the White House page came up with three results: number one, Review of Detention Policies; two, National Medal of Honor Day; and three, Statement from the President on National Medal of Honor Day. In fact a search of the eight pages of archived presidential press releases not one mention is made of Armed Forces Day. Not that the Bush or Clinton, or even further back, administrations have done much better.

The Holiday, recognized the second Saturday in May, was approved as part of the 1968-Uniformed Holidays Bill and is really not a lot different from Veterans Day, November 11, except that it is inclusive to all military and not just the vets.

But as a federal holiday it seems to me, and every other active duty member and vet that I talk to about it, to be just another excuse for a Friday off.

And that suits me, and those folks mentioned above, just fine.

First of all, a day off is nice, and if the federals want to use us as an excuse for a Friday off in the spring we are happy to be the reason.

That sort of thing is why we served and continue to serve in uniform. You know, so that our fellow citizens can get things like days off with pay and freedom of speech and to choose our leaders. It isn't always about defending the shores from communism or radical Islamic terrorism. Those things are important, and some do join with those grand defenses, but most of us did and continue to join-up to preserve the little things that are taken for granted by most of us, me included.

In a time where we face more and more challenges to our rights through legislation like the PATRIOT Act and FISA violations, and the current administration's trend of maintaining and even strengthening some of those bits of policy while advocating more rights for the captured enemies of this country, we need to remember the people who are out there today, this minute as I write and you read, who are prepared and willing to die for you to have the freedom to drive from here to Canada if you choose.

It is those daily-executed rights as Americans that we swear an oath to protect and for which we would die if necessary.

So, as you go out this Saturday night for dinner or a movie or whatever, as you sit down with your children for a backyard barbecue supper or when you take-off for a beach run for the weekend, it would be very nice indeed if you took just a second and thought about that kid sitting behind a sandbagged wall in Iraq trying to keep sand out of his MRE, or that kid huddling down from strong winds somewhere in the Afghan mountains wishing he could make a cup of coffee and have a smoke or that kid who is rolling through a dark night on a dirt road because she needs to refuel those tanks again. They are there for you and me: so that we can get a Friday off in the spring to enjoy the rights and privileges that come from being an American citizen. They are on guard so that the wolf stays away from the door and we survive as a nation one more day.

Think of them and say a prayer to your chosen god or just hold them in your heart for a second. It's a fair trade, after all. Hold them in a grateful heart; since they are holding you in their protective arms.

For my sons T.J., Carl and John.