Some veterans also carry with them a particular burden of having killed other human beings, which war permits but somehow does not justify. Second Samuel relates that David was thirsty and homesick and didn't watch his mouth. Three of his mighty ones, veteran campaigners, overheard him and took great risks in enemy territory to bring back water from Bethlehem to David. And David would not drink it. Americans are free because of the risks of mighty men and women who brought them the cup of freedom at great risk.
American veterans live in our communities and attend our churches.
They have asked for little and given much. Many are approaching their twilight years and find that their grief or guilt are revived as they ponder the sense and meaning of their lives. I don't mean to imply that our veterans are mentally or emotionally handicapped. But they do call us to a special understanding of what they have experienced, inflicted and suffered. It is unseemly that in a time where Christians march in support of AIDS victims or demonstrate against domestic violence that churches are ashamed of their veterans on November 11 because they think that to honor them is to perpetrate militarism.