On Monday, May 30th, I attended the Memorial Day ceremonies sponsored by our local VFW post. The members of our local post who have gave and continue to give to the country and to our community deserve the full support of the community. They take time out of their lives to sponsor many community events, including scholarships for our local high school students.
We live in a city of 3600 residents, yet fewer than 100 people turned out to honor our veterans on this Memorial Day. I find this a little sad. I see every day, many vehicles displaying the “I Support our Troops” stickers in the windows or on the back of the car. I am sorry to be the one to break it to this community, but simply picking up a $2 sticker at Walmart to put on your car does not actually support your troops. It only goes to support Walmart.
Then, as I was watching the honor guard ceremony at the Catholic cemetery, to my shock and disbelief, a photographer covering the event actually walked across in front of the guard while they were firing the salute. I can’t think of anything that could have possibly been more disrespectful of this service.
A few years ago, I was receiving a constant barrage of calls and mailings from different groups claiming to support veterans groups in different ways. If you donated to any, it only increased the amount of requests you would receive. The worst part of this is that many of these groups are fraudulent, or only spend pennies on the dollar to actually help the veterans.
I made the decision to keep my charitable contributions in my local community. I’m not sure exactly when I began, but I have made it my policy every year to give a donation to our local VFW organization to be used as they best see fit.
It’s easy to put the sticker on your car, but if we are truly interested in supporting our troops, let’s start as a community by supporting our local veteran’s organization. I almost never get the solicitations from groups claiming to represent our veterans anymore and if I do, I simply let them know that I give my donation through our local veterans group.
Randall Jones
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