In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson declared that Nov. 11 would serve as a day of remembrance for those that had answered the call of service and fought in World War I. Thirty-five years later, after the horrors of World War II and after Europe had begun to heal, President Eisenhower declared that Nov. 11 would be known as Veterans Day and would be a day to honor those who had returned home. Today is the 97th anniversary of (the end of) World War I. For the past 96 years on this day, we have honored our veterans, and we have promised them that we will never forget their sacrifice.
To understand this day, you must first understand what a veteran is. Lieutenant Colonel George Goodson of the United States Marine Corps said it best: "A veteran is someone who, at one point, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for an amount of ‘up to and including their life.'"
Today we remember those who wrote that check. We thank them for their service, and we remember that no politician or president or actor or mayor of anything gives and contributes to our freedom or our way of life like a soldier that stands their post and puts themselves in between danger and the rest of us. The idea of "true love" is hard to believe in. The idea that someone can meet someone and be their true love is crazy, but we see it all the time. When men and women volunteer to fight and die for people they do not know and have never met, they epitomize the words of the Gospel of John: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."
So today while you sit in Russell House and eat your chicken fingers or walk to class along Greene Street, remember there's a reason you're able to do this. There's a reason that you are able to challenge the opinion of your professor. There's a reason that you are able to believe what you believe and pray to who you pray to. It is because at some point in the past, and even today, a group of men and women your own age decided to put off their dreams of college, Greek functions and political campaigns to put on a uniform and stand to post. They gave up Greek letters and resume builders to protect you and me. So today, thank them. Today, thank those veterans in your classes, because, trust me, there is nothing we can do to thank them enough. All the bills in congress cannot thank them enough. Veterans are special people and deserve the utmost respect we are capable of. So today, on the 96th Veterans Day, I say God bless our veterans and God bless America.