I’ve never been one to believe you can repay somebody for putting their life on the line with a handshake, a pat on the back and a couple of kind words. Especially when the person you’re thanking was willing to die for your right to live free.
Veterans Day comes around every year, and we all know the routine. My concern is that somewhere between the flags, the speeches and the Facebook posts, we forget just how much these men and women gave up so the rest of us wouldn’t have to.
I make my living covering drag racing, a sport where we celebrate courage, horsepower and people willing to put everything on the line. But there is a world of difference between somebody strapping into a race car and somebody putting on the uniform of the United States military.
One does it for a trophy while the other does it for a country full of people they’ve never met, including some who might never appreciate what they’ve done.
That’s a different kind of courage.
I’ve always believed freedom is one of those things Americans can take for granted because most of us have never had to live without it. We wake up, go to work, complain about the government, argue about politics and generally exercise freedoms somebody else helped preserve.
It’s about remembering the human beings behind the uniform.
The ones who served in combat. The ones who served in peacetime. The ones who volunteered, the ones who were drafted and the ones who answered when their country needed them.
Every one of them gave up something that the rest of us got to keep.
To every veteran reading CompetitionPlus.com today, I want you to know something. Your service isn’t lost on us, and neither are the sacrifices you and your families made along the way.
We may never fully understand what you endured. But we can make darn sure we never forget why you did it.
From my family and the entire CompetitionPlus.com family, Happy Veterans Day.
May God bless every American veteran, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
And to those who wore the uniform, two words will never be enough, but they come straight from the heart. Thank you.
