Veteran’s Day was felt with particular depth last Friday at a ceremony in Veteran’s Park at which a young wounded warrior was given an American flag and a trio of elected officials spoke about the meaning of our soldiers’ service.
Marine Corporal Jonathan Francis Carnes, 26, lost his lower right leg to an improvised explosive in Afghanistan five years ago. The voice of Patricia Holman, the assistant chaplin at the nearby Elks Club, trembled as she prayed for the recovery of wounded warriors in an invocation that followed a moving “Receiving of the Colors” ceremony in which Carnes was given the American flag that had flown above Veteran’s Park.
Congresswoman Janice Hahn, elected to serve as LA County Supervisor last week, said that the nation’s duty is support its veterans far beyond the battlefield. She said no one should sleep until all veterans get the homes and health care many lack.
“You have given you blood, your sweat, your tears,” she said. “You gave even given parts of your body for this country….Today I just want to remind us that our veterans deserve more than just our thanks. They deserve our support. And yet too often our commitement to the men and women of our military ends at the battlefield’s edge.”
Congressman Ted Lieu noted that President Obama two months ago signed a bill he’d written which will revitalize the West LA VA and add 1,200 units of housing dedicated to homeless veterans. Lieu also talked about the meaning of military service in light of the recently concluded election.
“ For those of us like me who supported Secretary Clinton, the last few days we have had emotions ranging from despair to anger to numbness to everything in between,” Lieu said. “But I also thought about what does it mean to honor our veterans? One, it is to honor the Constitituon that they fought so hard to defend, and that includes the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.”
Assemblyman David Hadley also addressed the orderly transition of power.
“Whether you are excited about that transition or whether you are distraught about that transition, or somewhere in between, we all have a duty to recognize that whatever our political preferences are, wahtever our voting preferences are, that our fighting men and women, our veterans, are on the front line protecting exactly what is happening,” Hadley said. “And so let’s thank our veterans. And let’s salute that transition. Let’s applaud it.”
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