Veterans Day bears the publishing date of this edition of The Farmville Herald-Friday, November 11, 2011.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month is when all became quiet along the western front in Europe, the first world war-the so-called “war to end all wars”-ending its violent run of savage butchery, having taken warfare to a new, more insidious level thanks to-never has “thanks” been more misused-technological advances. And “advances” also reeks, in this context, of deformation.

Veterans Day is also an inadequate expression of what we owe those who risked, and those who lost, and those who still risk, their lives for us.

One day cannot suffice.

Children are sometimes told that “every day is children's day” when they ask of the apparent omission alongside Mothers and Fathers Day celebrations.

From that response we should take our cue.

Sunday.

Monday.

Tuesday.

Wednesday.

Thursday.

Friday.

Saturday.

Every week.

Every month.

Every year.

Let us express our deepest thanks to those we know among us who served us to that last extreme of utmost willingness.

Restrain not our thanks, as they gave themselves for us without restraint.

Call someone you know right now who is, and always shall be, a veteran.

Say, “Thank you.”

Two words that only truly exist, of course, if you say them to one who deserves them.

Nobody deserves them more than our veterans do.

-JKW-