Today is Veterans Day and for most people we wouldn’t even know it until we tried to do our banking and realized that the banks are closed for the holiday. How do you celebrate this kind of holiday? Years ago after World War II we saw all those happy pictures of people cheering in the streets that the war was over. We saw the pictures of handsome rugged soldiers in their custom tailored dress military uniforms returning from the war kissing the first girl they could find in a sexy photograph knowing that there will be a lot more loving to come because back then your girl waited for you to return from the war and was there just to love you and make all the babies she wanted. It was romantic with heros’  full of pride and valor.

Now our veterans look like broken men physically and mentally from too many tours overseas in a land that is still not a peaceful place at all. The guys are home in wheelchairs with half their limbs blown off. There is no girl to kiss them passionately because after 19 years of war in the Middle East she has moved on to a new guy  with all his arms and legs still attached. Today’s Veteran gets to see fliers in the mail urging people to donate their old wrecked cars to a Veteran. Today’s Veteran gets to see fellow Veterans exploited on an entertaining show called Dancing With The Stars where seasons ago they exploited a previously handsome Hispanic man who had his face horribly disfigured beyond recognition dancing his heart away. One  season they had another guy who lost his arm and leg on one side of his body and everyone applauded at unbelievable efforts of being able to lift a woman over his head with his one good arm without falling. Another season the show featured a young guy who hog tied a terrorist on a train.  I guess Veterans are like side shows in a circus that we get to applaud occasionally now. They should be respected more and not exploited because that was never why they served this country.

Every year we get to see the 911 Memorials where they read off the names of innocent people who lost their lives in New York City simply because they went to work that day. Now their 19 year old kids who never met them get to grieve over the parent they never met. We must never ever forget that our most recent Veterans saw this horror take place on our soil and VOLUNTEERED to fight for the pride and safety of all Americans.

We had a Presidential election that elected Trump who is a five time draft dodger. Who had a government shutdown who took the wages away from our Military but demanded they did continuous protection for our country. He didn't even hire a head of the Veterans Administration. He is taking away Pentagon Military Housing funds away to pay for a wall construction. He is privatizing healthcare for Veterans rather than give them the best benefits he himself enjoys. Yet he expects our faithful Veterans to vote for him again in an election  that is a year away.  Many  of the  Democratic candidates are Veterans who know what it is to serve this country putting their lives on the line for this country.  This administration is full of men who wear expensive suits and are all millionaires. In the opening questions they all said that they were opposed to raising the minimum wage to a mere $15 dollars an hour simply because “things would be imbalanced in the economy” for a while. Most of our Veterans are very poor since they spent the last 19 years of their lives, their most productive years, years that could have been spent getting a college education and a good job or becoming millionaires themselves fighting a war that no one won and returning home damaged goods. The most disrespectful thing is the fact that Trump just gave Syria the control of Communists and not to our allies. Spend time reflecting on Trump's disrespect of our Veterans and spend time thanking a Veteran for their service .

To me Veterans Day is a sad day now. I don’t know how this country has managed to fail the brave VOLUNTEERS who ruined their mind and bodies for this country.  For how this country has failed the many women soldiers who get raped daily by fellow soldiers and are told to forget about their assaults by commanding officers. For how this country has failed the brave gay and lesbian soldiers who were told for years to “don’t ask or tell” about who they are.  Our military still receives most of our tax paying dollars and we are still considered the most powerful military country in the world. I guess we should still spend a moment thinking about those who donated their lives to protecting us so we could be upset for that moment we realize the bank is closed today, it will just have to wait till tomorrow.