It’s a simple request.

Please take time today to thank the veterans you know.

It’s just five words, “Thank you for your service.”

Sure, sometimes to some all this patriotism at Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day seems a bit old-fashioned or even nationalistic, but that’s not how the military veterans see it. They are just ordinary folks like everyone else and they often happened to end up in combat while serving their country. They have views across the political spectrum, like everyone else. Some are more outwardly expressive about their U.S. patriotism than others, like everyone else. They are young and old, male and female, black and white and everything in between. They are like everyone else.

But this is the difference:

They want the public to understand that they risked their lives and saw their buddies die for good reasons. The reasons are the freedoms Americans possess — freedoms that on other days we all, as a liberated people, happily take for granted.

So when you are saying “thank you,” it means a lot to them. It means “Thank you for doing what you did so that I can do what I do every day.”

It’s the very least you can do on this Veterans Day.