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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remember Fort Hood victims on Veterans Day
American soldiers salute while the national anthem is played during a ceremony marking Veterans Day at the U.S. Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

 

Seven years after the end of World War I, Congress urged the recognition of Nov. 11 — then Armistice Day — with these words:
 
“It is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace...”
 
Yesterday, appropriately, the prayers, led by the commander in chief, were directed at Fort Hood, Texas, where 13 people were killed and 29 others wounded last week in a shooting rampage.
 
The nation’s thoughts and good wishes will remain with the Fort Hood community for some time, added to the daily prayers to keep safe all those who serve in harm’s way. But also, on this Veterans Day, the nation takes up its solemn responsibility to say thanks and try to bring some peace. Here’s a short list of examples:
 
Today at noon, the newly restored Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be unveiled. It’s the culmination of a two-year effort to preserve the memorial and undo years of damage from general use and vandalism. More improvements are coming.
 
By the time the Philly ceremony begins, Media Borough’s 50th Veterans Day parade will already have begun rolling down State Street. Local school bands, ROTC units, and veterans and civic groups will once again participate in one of the area’s biggest thank-yous, led by American Legion Post 93, Pennsylvania’s Veterans Museum, and Media Mayor Bob McMahon, who served in Vietnam.
 
Dozens of other communities will mark the day with wreath-laying ceremonies, banquets, and memorial services.
 
As to bringing some sense of peace, those efforts, large and small, go on daily.
Operation Home and Healing (www.operationhomeandhealing. org) offers counseling to service members, vets, and their families at 14 locations in South Jersey and Pennsylvania. The effort, funded by the local McCausland Foundation, provides an outlet for those who don’t want to seek counseling through military channels.
 
Last night in Cherry Hill, a dinner/dance raised funds for the Wounded Warriors Rehab Center at Fort Dix, Camden County Veterans Services, the Gold Star Mothers, and other groups.
 
In Washington over the weekend, the Henry M. Jackson and Tug McGraw Foundations sponsored a military medicine symposium that brought together experts from government, military, and civilian medicine. Their mission: to share best practices in helping vets with traumatic brain injuries, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other war-related wounds.
 
Fortunately, there is no end to the generosity and goodwill of individuals and organizations willing to help. Unfortunately, with two wars that have no end in sight, those efforts and more will be needed for years to come.
 
On Veterans Day, and every other day of the year.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 11:46 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

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