Veterans Day, November 11, 2011: For the 1%

Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.

But the past is just the same-and War’s a bloody game...
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.

From Aftermath, by Siegfried Sassoon

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The  Occupy Wall Street protesters proudly display this political statement: 

 "We are the 99%".

This refers to the fact that wealth and income has become concentrated within the top 1% of the United States population.

Here's another way to look at numbers:

Just 1% of the United States population has served,

or is currently serving, in the military

to shoulder the load of America's two longest wars.

Do you need a job?

Join the Army. Or the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard or the Air Force.

Are you part of the 99%?

Thank a veteran today (or any other day) for stepping up for you.

 ................................................................

Remember the family of James Clifford McKittrick.

They are still waiting for him to come home.

I'm still waiting to send them my POW-MIA bracelet.

Remember Barry Lynn Brown.

 I escorted his flag-draped coffin home to his family.
Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed in Action, Vietnam, May 5, 1968

Remember Joseph Ambrose,

 a World War I veteran, holding the flag that covered the casket of his son,

who had been killed in the Korean War.