Veterans Day

 There is a time for everything...a time for everything that is done on earth.
There is a time to be born and there is a time to die.
There is a time to plant and a time to pull up what is planted.
There is a time to kill and a time to heal.
There is a time to tear down and a time to build up.
There is a time to cry and a time to laugh.
There is a time to be sad and a time to dance.
There is a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.
There is a time to hug and a time not to hug.
There is a time to search and a time to stop searching.
There is a time to keep and a time to throw away.
There is a time to tear and a time to mend.
There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.
There is a time to love and a time to hate.
There is a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

World War I: more than 500,000 horses and mules were sent to England and other countries out of Newport News; and over 500,000 men returned to Newport News and were honored to walk through our Victory Arch.  I can’t speak for them.
 
I can’t speak for those who, in World War II, went to Europe, maybe to brave the beaches at Normandy, or to the Pacific Theater to brave the untold fear of the islands.
 
I can’t speak for those who went, and may be still going, to Korea, or to the Middle East, or to Afghanistan.
 
I can only speak of having gone to a small country where, just as when Christ was born in the Holy Land, a war was being fought.  Almost 2,000 years later, it was a land of airstrips, jeeps, tar paper houses with tin roofs held down by old tires, motorbikes, black silk pajamas, water buffalo, sandbags, straw hats, green and camouflaged fatigues, trash, mountains, land mines, and thousands and thousands of miles of barbed wire.
 
Veterans in all wars:
have endeavored to plant the seeds of democracy and peace,
have made many efforts to rebuild what was destroyed,
have cried and laughed with each other,
have hugged and gathered to remember, as we do today,
have kept their thoughts and maybe relics from their past, often finding it difficult to throw away those thoughts and relics,
have been silent and have spoken out,
have tried to turn hate into love,
and have hoped that war will be replaced with peace.
 
May we all plant joy; support those who are downhearted; dance, hug, and even cry together; speak from our hearts, and hopefully, one day be able to replace hate and war with love and peace.   Amen.
 
Bill Wilds