I was on the road last week and part of this week. Combining business and pleasure, I stopped over in Lincoln, Nebraska over the weekend to go trick or treating with my 9 year old niece, Jorie, and had a wonderful time walking the streets with all sorts of ghosts, goblins, witches and wizards, cleopatra, lions, pirates, etc. The weather cooperated, the candy was plentiful and everyone had a great and safe time as we made our way up and down the residential streets of Lincoln. The rest of my time there was visiting with my sister, Ellen, and her husband, Rod. I raked leaves (they have a lot of leaves because of the big trees that sit on their property!). I don't think I have raked leaves since I was a kid--we just don't seem to have the need to rake leaves in Malibu! You kind of need different seasons for the leaves to fall and we tend to have only two seasons out here in southern California--spring and summer. Fall and winter kind of morph into one of the two but there is not much difference in any of our seasons.
Alas, I had to return to reality on Tuesday and head back to LA and in order to do so, I flew out of Omaha through Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles. But, something wonderful happened in Omaha before we took off. As I walked up to my gate, the plane that I was to take was just unloading and I was struck by an unusual site. People had lined up to form a pathway for the deplaning passengers and most of them were holding small American flags. I asked the attendant at the counter what was going on and was told that there were at least 7 soldiers on the fight that were coming back from Iraq and the airline wanted them to have a rousing welcome home when they came through the door. The gate attendant had the microphone that is normally used to announce when you can get in line to board but this time she was hovering by the door and reporting back to the crowd when a soldier was on his way up the gang plank and as each soldier emerged, the crowd waved their flags and clapped and whooped and hollered at the same time. The soldier was greeted by family (usually wife and child) and then together they had to walk the gauntlet of grateful Americans who wanted to thank them for their service to their country. It was really awesome and it brought tears to my eyes and even to some of the soldiers' family members as they were given a heroes welcome.
Next Wednesday is Veterans Day. I think that I will enjoy it a lot more because of the experience I had in Omaha this week. We can never take for granted the sacrifice of our soldiers. These soldiers only have a two-week leave and then must go back to Iraq. They will be in harms way again. There are millions of veterans to whom we owe a great debt and gratitude. Remember to honor these quiet heroes who served without complaining, who served honorably and with dignity and discipline and did so because they recognize that freedom must be protected at all costs--even the ultimate cost of one's life. Honor our veterans, don't just mark it as a day off from work. They deserve it!
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