Picture of the day - November 11, 2007

Honoring our nation's veterans

Photo courtesy of Erin Marie Payne. Today is Veterans Day, a special day on which we Americans pause to remember and pay homage to all the brave men and women who selflessly answered their nation's call by putting on the uniform of the United States Military and placing themselves in harm's way to ensure that we can remain free from tyranny and oppression. Far too many of us take our unparalleled freedoms and precious way of life for granted, and we fail to realize that without the service and sacrifices of our veterans we would most surely lose them. Our nation now finds itself entangled in a war unlike any other that we have ever been drawn into, and each and every day we see the stark images of our fallen heroes being brought back onto American soil draped in the American Flag they so dearly loved. Our eyes well up with tears as we see thousands of our brightest and best return home missing body parts or stretched out on a gurney, never again to be the same people they were before they climbed aboard those planes or ships and headed off to defend their country against one of the most despicable and ruthless enemies it has ever faced. We can never repay our veterans for what they have done for us and our country, but we can and should thank them for their service at every opportunity and do everything we can as a nation to make sure their medical needs are met so they can live out the rest of their lives with the dignity and respect they so richly deserve. Without their sacrifices, we would live in a country that it vastly different than the one we know and love. Our freedoms would be little more than memories and our lives would be nothing but day after day of fear and gloom. Thanks to our veterans we enjoy a level of freedom and security that people in other parts of the world can only dream about. I salute them, and thank them from the bottom of my heart for allowing me and the ones I love to live free under the glorious shadow of the Stars and Stripes. About the photo: Photographer Erin Marie Payne captured this moving image of American flags adorning the graves at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma, San Diego, California.   Click here to comment on today's picture.   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"