The letter to Hebrews does center on a word that we use quite frequently: sacrifice. The word Veteran stems from the Latin “vetus”, meaning old. We think of veterans that way, yet, today we look around and see those we call veterans of a much younger age. The parades are no longer for the old men in tight suits and campaign hats, but also for younger men and women, who have borne the battle. Barely a month before his death, Abraham Lincoln strode to the rostrum on the steps of the United States Capitol Building and gave one of the greatest speeches – his Second Inaugural Address. He ended his short speech with words that gave echoed down the long and dusty halls of history: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Today, those words still hold as a receipt for a debt owed by a nation that sends its young folks off to war as surrogates for its citizenry. During that time, they are called troop, soldier, sailor, Marine, airman, Coast Guardsman…but once that service is ended, they are, forevermore, Veterans of the United States military. As veterans, they deserve a special place of honor in our society, and our culture, for they have written a blank check, backed by their own life, and serving in place of all of us who do not go, and to keep us all free. We best honor our veterans by working for peace, so that this generation of warriors might be the last.