A Veterans Day message from everyone at The Columbia Chronicle.
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of the First World War fell silent. More than a century later, America still stops on this day to say two words that can never be said enough to the men and women who served: thank you.
In Columbia, our veterans are not names in a history book. They are our neighbors on Locust Street and Lancaster Avenue. They coach our kids, sit next to us at church, open the shops we stop in every morning and fill the seats at our council meetings. Some came home and quietly went back to work. Some came home carrying wounds the rest of us will never see. And some never came home at all.
They left this river town as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. They stood watch on ships and flight lines, in deserts and jungles and frozen hills, so that the rest of us could sleep without fear. They missed birthdays, holidays and first steps. They wrote letters home and waited for the ones that came back. Every one of them signed their name to a promise to protect people they would never meet.
Today we honor all of them: the ones who served in wartime and in peacetime, the ones in uniform today, the ones who wear their hats proudly at the grocery store, and the ones who never talk about it at all. We remember the families who served right alongside them and the empty chairs at too many dinner tables.
How you can say thank you today
- Shake a veteran’s hand and ask them where they served. Then listen.
- Fly your flag, or simply stop for a moment at 11 a.m.
- Call a veteran you love. A few minutes means more than you know.
- Check on the veterans who live alone. The holidays are coming.
- Support local veteran organizations with your time, a donation or a ride to an appointment.
Freedom was never free. It was paid for by people from towns exactly like ours.
To every veteran in Columbia and beyond: we see you, we are grateful, and we will not forget.
With deepest respect,
Jesse Sweigart, Kimberly Robinson and everyone at The Columbia Chronicle
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