Free Pancakes

Today is Veteran’s Day.   The day we honor those of us who served this country in the Armed Forces.

What should be a solemn day of reflection and, quite honestly, regret, has instead become a pseudo patriotic holiday replete with all sorts of marketing tactics…deeply discounted goods and services, red-white-and-blue logos, waving flag GIFs on the background of websites and free offers.  Offers for free cups of over-priced, over-brewed coffee.  Shitty pancakes loaded with empty carbs.  Waffle fries.

So instead of saying “thank you, we’re sorry your legs got blown off,” or “we appreciate your service and we’ll try better to comfort you and rid you of your recurring nightmares,” we’ve allowed our society to say “come on down for a deep discount on a wide screen TV” and “come buy a green light bulb, screw it in to show your solidarity with these injured countrymen” knowing quite well one cannot buy just a solitary light bulb at Wal*Mart.

No, how about we honor those of us who left home, endured countless hours of boredom and bureaucracy, made our Moms and wives cry, got shot at, got poisoned, went crazy, lost a limb or lost our very lives with a promise not to ask these same things of the next generation.  How ’bout we do that instead?

That would be the best Veteran’s Day offer yet.