Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Honoring Military Veterans


Well Golly! The last time I wrote I said I would add to the blog every week---that was the end of October! It is now the end of March. In the meantime life and dedication to family has been more essential for me than writing the blog. I guess this is meaningful because the people who are the central component of my book held family, church, and country as most important in their lives. Family often meant anyone in need.  So I claim their influence as my defense.As I was working on my book, a muse, or the Holy Spirit reminded me that the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor was approaching.  This voice kept telling me something needed to be done to honor the veterans of that war who are still living. I checked with various “powers that be” about what plans were being made at our church to honor these unsung heroes.  Guess who was given another job! After many phone calls, discussions and planning, early in November our church held a weekend of festivities to honor all armed forces veterans. In the midst of planning I discovered that the Korean War had begun in 1950 so another group of veterans were marking the 60th anniversary  of the conflict in which they served. A program and dinner on Sunday honored 16 veterans of those two wars.  Being chair for this event, took time away from writing, but it was much more important  to honor these people who had done so much for us. I was amazed to hear every honoree say that something like this had never been done before. I had just presume that surely the WW  II Vets were honored during the 50th anniversary.  The vets  eagerly shared pictures and memorabilia for a display during the dinner celebration, and all were excited to visit with friends who were amazed to learn interesting stories about some people they thought they knew. I would highly encourage you to check to see if you community has had an event to honor these vets.  . If not, perhaps you can take the lead in organizing this. The most difficult part of planning the festivities was finding out who had served. So many of these individuals have been so humble about their contributions that friends and sometimes even family members are unaware of all they have done.  Because the book I am writing takes place during WW II, it seemed more fitting that I do something concrete to honor the characters still living instead of writing.  That is the 1st reason I have been  away from writing fit to share for so long.  I will discuss the other reasons in my next post 

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