Mark Thompson’s excellent story in this week’s TIME magazine, Bringing Dogs to Heal, is not yet online, but you should take the time to watch the accompanying video below. This is after all a day to praise and remember those who have served our country. And we tend not to remember exactly what so many of them have gone through.
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On a similar topic, Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, has a fine essay in Huffington Post today. An excerpt:
During Veterans Week you’re going to hear people — particularly those for whom Veterans Week merely means we’re one week closer to the Iowa Caucuses — tell us to “Support Our Troops.” And when they do I’d like us to politely ask them to put their pom poms down for a moment. I’d like us to tell them that if you really want to honor our troops you won’t use them for an easy applause line, that you won’t use them to get votes, or, most insulting to them of all, to divide us into real Americans and fake Americans. I’d like us to ask them what, other than saying it, are they actually doing to support our troops? I’d like to ask the people who say government’s bad what they think of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. When we’re fighting two wars, should they get more money or less? And where is that money going to come from — magic or taxes?