Ruth Stonesifer, President of American Gold Star Mothers — a member of the Beyond Tribute Coalition and the Eleven Eleven Campaign — writes about the true meaning of Veterans Day over at the Huffington Post:
Veterans Day was always important in my family because a number of relatives served in uniform, including my two sons who both joined the Army, one in military police criminal investigations and the other jumping out of airplanes. But it became intensely personal eight years ago last month when my youngest son, Kristofor, was killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan. He was one of the first American soldiers to die in the war on terror, just 38 days after the 9/11 attacks.
My grief channeled itself into action and all these years later I was chosen to serve as president of the American Gold Star Mothers, an 81-year-old organization of women who have lost children in uniform. Our mission is to provide services and support to injured or ill veterans.
My journey has been an eye-opener and one of the things I see clearly is how a ritual that was once held sacred in every corner of America has lost its meaning just about everywhere. Even as our best and brightest are patrolling and dying in the deserts of Iraq and the far-off mountains of Afghanistan, at home Veterans Day means an extra sleep-in, traffic-disrupting parades, and the launch of the Christmas retail season with noisy, patriotic sales pitches, which really do nothing for those who have served our country but go a long way to increasing the retailers’ bottom lines.
So how do we return to the true spirit of Veterans Day? Ruth writes:
At the individual level, I recently heard ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff, who suffered traumatic brain injuries covering the war in Iraq, speak about helping veterans this year by urging all Americans to each donate $1 in honor of the 1.6 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I want to raise the stakes. Let’s make it $11. Just imagine the profound impact we could have on the lives of the courageous men and woman who have volunteered to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan if 11 million of us also volunteered, in this case to each donate $11 to support them on Veterans’ Day. The incredible nature of such a collective act on Veterans’ Day, the 11th day of the 11th month, would be unprecedented in terms of raising awareness of the plight of returning veterans, particularly those who continue to suffer the invisible wounds of war, all while raising millions of dollars to ensure that these veterans get the help they need and deserve. To ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of such an “11-11 campaign,” there is already in place a grassroots coalition called Beyond Tribute that comprises eleven organizations dedicated to assisting veterans of all generations deal with the challenges of civilian life.
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