VETERANS DAY dawns with a new poignancy in 2025. As we contemplate the sacrifices made for our freedom in the past, most notably on shores far away from ours, this year everything is different. Our need for deliverance may not be so far away as in the past.
Our military is pledged by oath to defend our Constitution above all. The high costs of winning and maintaining peace and freedom can only be vindicated through eternal citizen vigilance and the accurate teaching of history. Those who forget are doomed to repeat, and those who remember become scarce.
On this D-day as observed by our allies in Britain, a remarkable testimony from a former Royal Navy serviceman appeared on a national interview, stating clearly that the sacrifices of his fallen comrades in WWII were not worth it given the state of that nation today. The veteran, Alec Penstone, a centenarian, sadly stated:
“My message is, I can see in my mind’s eye those rows and rows of white stones and all the hundreds of my friends and everybody else, that gave their lives – for what? The country of today? …No, I’m sorry – but the sacrifice wasn’t worth the result that it is now… What we fought for was our freedom — we fought for it. Even now, it’s a darn sight worse than when I fought for it.”
The methods of war have changed, as have the terrains on which they are fought, dulling humanity’s ability to recognize the onset of oppression and tyranny. The erosion of FREEDOM takes many forms, the most dangerous of them psychologically subtle. Losses include: (1) the power or right to act, speak or think free of despotic oppression; (2) the sly onset of subjection to foreign domination or gradually invasive domestic despotic government, (3) increasing fears or acts of being imprisoned or enslaved for exercising natural and Constitutional freedoms. These points alone should register loud and clear on our annual Veterans Day.
The fight for freedom has never been confined to distant shores where so many of our soldiers have sacrificed; it is wherever we reside, work, and in the schools we send our children to. We can best honor our veterans by courageously entering the battles closest to us. The power of one is immense. Remembering John F. Kennedy’s words: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Our time is now. It always has been.
By this time next year, if there is a next year, what do we want our hindsight to look like? What will we have done, or not done, in contribution to the outcome?
For related reading, see this site’s article, “The Power of One”.
Copyright 2021 Nancy Diraison/Diraison Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Respectful sharing permitted with credits. Edited November 10, 2025.
DREAMSTIME Photo Credits:
Soldier with flag: ID 105184264 © Cateyeperspective| Dreamstime.com
Flame at tomb of unknown soldiers: ID 130634287 © Kbolbik | Dreamstime.com
Leffrinckoucke, France – january 26 2020 : the Fort des Dunes necropolis of the battle of Dunkerque D 198267617 © Philippehalle | Dreamstime.com
US soldiers salute. Military of USA. ID 136293944 © Bumbleedee | Dreamstime.com
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