I can only imagine the anxiety experienced by my Mother and Father's entire generation. I have relatives and friends who have experienced similar anxiety in my generation and among the millennials in my family, but in the age of an all-volunteer military, that anxiety is not shared universally.
My sister-in-law Sally Maxwell Matthews keeps this photo of her father (whom Sheila and I knew) and this framed letter on a chest in the bedroom we used during our Thanksgiving stay. Can you imagine receiving such a message as this concerning your son or daughter? Mr. Maxwell was held for two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp but survived the war and, we are thankful, lived to raise two daughters, one of whom is our beloved sister-in-law.
Just as today we have the authoritarian sympathizers who nevertheless shout "America First" there were Americans in the forties who used the same slogan while they supported Hitler and the Nazis. But others stood up for the real American principles of the Declaration, the Preamble, the Gettysburg Address, the ever-perfecting Constitution -- majority rule and minority rights.
So among the many things I must express thanks for -- on this holiday devoted to gratitude -- are young folks like Sally's Dad and mine who risked all to save the world from authoritarian rule. When I cast my vote today it will be done very seriously and in honor of these men and all who have helped preserve our very right to vote, so that "...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
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