We hold this assembly every year partly to showcase our school's musical talents, but mostly we hold it to honor veterans. Several times we have invited honored guests to speak, including one of my former students whose military vehicle ran over an IED in the Middle East, and he barely survived. Pictures of our realtives who are veterans roll across a giant screen as the chorus sings. Taps is played and, despite a reminder, many people young and old still clap.
Afterward, many of us go about Veterans Day lessons, and the activity that my co-teacher sets up for us involves writing and decorating cards for the troops who are deployed. What makes this day even more incredible, as if the assembly isn't enough, is that the students are totally into everything, as well.
Thank you, veterans, and thanks to those still in active service. We appreciate you, and we don't say it nearly often enough. Regardless of what mainstream media and extremist pundits say, we honestly and wholeheartedly appreciate you.
