It’s so easy to separate veterans from the general population (and for us to do it on our own), but this piece highlights a way to think of service that brings us together.
On Veterans Day, at my son’s request, I sat in a crowded elementary assembly as part of a Veterans Day ceremony. I listened uncomfortably to fifth and sixth graders repeat what they had been taught in their classrooms about veterans and about military service: that veterans represent the best our country has to offer, that there is no America without its veterans, and that veterans have a unique place in the country’s pantheon. I listened to their teachers and administrators say much the same. I listened as they pledged allegiance to the flag, sang the national anthem and “God Bless America.” They read sincere essays that praised veterans as “what makes America great.” By the end of the service—and that is how I felt after leaving, as if I’d been to church—I was downright queasy.
It wasn’t that the children or their teachers were insincere. It was exactly the opposite…
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Not Unusually Gifted 