COLUMN: Vets at assembly inspired more than just the students

     I haven’t been to every Monticello High School Veterans Day assembly since I started work at the Monticello Express in late 1998.

     But I’ll bet I’ve been to most of them in that time. And I can tell you that of the ones I’ve attended, the one held Monday was the best one of them all.

     It was moving, watching the high school students line the hallway to form a “tunnel,” and applaud as the veterans walked between them, some shaking hands, some waving, some simply smiling.

     It was equally moving to see the Monticello-area veterans – I’m going to say there were about 25 – seated on the stage as the ceremony began. And there might have been a tear in the Express photographer’s eye when his son, Levi, nailed the national anthem.

     After the ceremony, it was great to see veteran Armin Jacobs unveil the board displaying the names of the MHS graduates who served in World War II. As Superintendent Brian Jaeger said in an email sent district-wide on Monday, “The WWII memorial on display in our lobby will be a point of pride on our community for years to come.”

     The whole thing – put together by Todd Hospodarsky with the help of students and staff – was inspiring and meaningful.

     As for the speakers, veterans Doug Kramer and Clyde Meyer, they no doubt inspired the students and staff in the audience. Their words, however, hit home to me on a much more personal level.

     See, I am one of those people who feel just a twinge of guilt every time one of the big veteran-honoring national holidays – Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Veterans Day – comes along.

     Like so many in our country, I didn’t serve in the military. So every thank-you I offer to a veteran is accompanied by an introverted, implied apology for not doing more myself.

     Kramer opened my eyes, however, by saying there are lots of ways to serve.

     “I chose to serve my country by joining the military, but you don’t all have to join the military to serve,” Kramer told the audience. “You can become a volunteer.”

     He then read a list of possibilities, everything from coaching a youth sports team to joining the FFA to becoming a school board member.

     “Every one of you can make a difference,” Kramer said. “This country needs something from all of us.”

     Meyer added that not only can one serve the country in a variety of ways, one should, and indeed must.

     “I want to talk to you about another way to thank veterans. It’s by being the best citizens that you can possibly be,” Meyer said.

     “It’s a great privilege to live in this nation. But when was the last time you were given a privilege of any significance that didn’t have a great responsibility attached to it?

     “Democracies demand, expect, and should expect, that the electorate are well-informed, stay informed, and are active and care. If that doesn’t happen, that democracy will not survive.”

     I guess it never sunk in to me, the idea that volunteering not only serves the organizations, it also serves the country.

     So thanks, guys, not only for serving, but for helping me realize that in our own ways – though nowhere near as significant – we all can serve as well.