I thought about posting this yesterday, but decided not to for a reason that should be clear by the end.

Yesterday was Veterans Day, a day where we honor those who have fought to protect the freedoms that we enjoy. And of course there were plenty of people out there on Twitter, Facebook, the Blogosphere, and everywhere else thanking Veterans for doing exactly that.

The letters to the editor page of the Star Trib was pretty much entirely thank you's to vets (except for the editorial cartoon, which I might talk about later) but it was the last one that bugged me. After giving a brief history of Veterans Day, the writer then went on to talk about war and basically it turned into an Anti-War protest.

On the OpEd page, there was one that was about how the recent elections will hurt Vets the most. it seems that several of the people in charge of committees dealing with Veterans were Democrats who lost their elections and will replaced by Republicans. Obviously the Republicans will do more harm the good (at least according to the writer) and it is the Vets that will suffer because of it.

Here is the reason I have a problem with these. Actually there is two problems with the OpEd piece. I'm not saying the guy is wrong, the new guys in charge might be worse then the old guys, but at least give them a chance. And if you are going to complain about them (as far as I can tell, it is simply because they are republicans. again, more on that in another post) at least give evidence to back up your claim instead of just evidence of why the old guys are so good.

The main reason I have a problem with those, and the reason I didn't post this yesterday is this. The people who wrote those (and I'm sure plenty of other similar items) used Veterans Day as a means of getting their political message across. Maybe it is Anti-War. Maybe it is Anti-Republican. Either way, it is a political message and has no purpose being spread on Veterans Day. Veterans Day is about honoring the men and women who fought to protect the freedoms we enjoy (as I said before) and not about furthering agendas.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against them saying these things. As I have said before I am a strong believer in the first amendment. But as the saying goes, "With Great Power Comes Great Responability." Yes, we should be free to say what we want, but in order to have that right you should have common sense enough to know what to say and when to say it. Had those items appeared today I would not have a problem with the, but Veterans Day is not the day to be giving political speeches.