The results of a poll about Veterans Day at our website, www.albertleatribune.com, were saddening. The poll wasn’t scientific by any means, but it does provide a snapshot of the users on our website.

What surprised us was that 33 percent of the respondents to the question “What best describes your plans for Veterans Day?” said Veterans Day was “just another day like any other.”

Just about everyone, even the veterans, can understand when some people don’t necessarily feel all that patriotic about the United States. To some, too much patriotism starts to seem like nationalism. Are we blind sheep or rather than the independent-thinking, liberated people? We get it.

But to not recognize or appreciate the very people who kept this country liberated or dutifully served their country whether the mission was right or wrong — to say this day is just another day — that seems to be an expression by people who are missing the point of the holiday.

Veterans Day is not a time for patriotism. Save that for Independence Day or Flag Day or several other holidays. Veterans Day is a time for thankfulness. It seems somewhat apt that it falls in November, a few weeks before Thanksgiving.

On Veterans Day, we are saying thank you to the veterans who fought for their country. Some of them died. Some of them almost died. Many of them risked their lives. All of them served knowing that risking their lives for their country was part of the job. And, to them, it was more than a job. It was a duty.

So even if you aren’t Mr. and Mrs. Patriot, even if you cry out against war, balk at the size of the military, grow weary of “united we stand,” bristle at “warrior culture,” look down on military service as getting hands dirty or perhaps are just altogether the apolitical type and don’t pay attention to the world that goes by, you still ought to thank a veteran or two on this day — YES, ON THIS DAY — because, even though you might not have cared for them, they still cared for you. They didn’t fight for a government. Veterans fought for you.

That takes valor and demands honor. Thank them.

 

The results

All the other options for answers at the poll had some measure of participation in Veterans Day, whether they were as low committal as “say thanks to the veterans I know” or as high committal as “go to the ceremony at the courthouse.”

Fortunately, “say thanks to the veterans I know” garnered the most votes, at 50 percent of the respondents.

“Just another day like any other” was second.

Then it went, “go to the ceremony at the courthouse” at 6 percent, “buy a drink for a veteran you know” at 6 percent, “visit a lost loved one in a cemetery” at 4 percent and “spend a few moments at a vets memorial” at 1 percent.