Opinion
OPINION: What Veterans Day really means
Matthew M. Milicich | Guest Writer
Utah County is still aching. A recent campus tragedy not far from here and the steady drumbeat of school shootings across the country have left many people feeling angry, numb or both. Veterans recognize that mix. We know what it is to carry fear and still keep faith with one another. Veterans Day is our annual reminder to do exactly that.
The day began as Armistice Day, the mark of an 11 a.m. cease-fire on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. It later widened to honor all who served. Memorial Day looks back in grief; Veterans Day looks around in gratitude. Both belong to the whole community, not just to those who wore the uniform.
What should gratitude sound like when the country is raw? It does not sound like triumph. It sounds like ordinary neighbors keeping faith with small, steady promises: we will tell the truth about hard things, we will not turn our grief into threats, we will ask for help when memories
get heavy, and we will look for the quiet work that keeps a town decent.
In Lehi, we have places that teach us how. The Veterans Memorial Wall at the Lehi City Cemetery and the Memorial Building on Center Street were built for names and stories that might otherwise be lost. When we stand there, we can feel the difference between noise and witness. Noise demands a headline. Witness says a name, holds a silence and chooses the next right task.
Here are a few of those tasks that can be done this week: speak a name and learn a story; listen before we post when a rumor runs hot; report real threats to schools and law enforcement; and check on one another. Some of us are steady at 2 p.m. and storm-tossed at 2 a.m. If memories are heavy, talk with someone you trust, or call or text 988.
None of this is dramatic. It is the routine discipline military service tries to teach: do the next right thing, and then the next one after that. Many of us learned it from sergeants who expected us to be safe for one another, sober in speech, careful with our power, and watchful for the smallest person in the room. That ethic belongs in school board meetings, in church foyers, and online as much as it does on a parade ground.
Veterans Day asks civilians for something, too. Ask good, ordinary questions: What did you do? What did you learn? Who helped you come home? Not every veteran wants to talk, and no one owes a story. But the invitation itself says something vital: we are neighbors first.
Matthew M. Milicich, Retired U.S. Army
Lehi, Utah
Enlisted Oct. 3, 1983; served four years on active duty and 18 1⁄2 years in the Texas Army National Guard; retired Jan. 23, 2006.
