CETconnect.org

As Veterans Day approaches, I realize that the way I think about this day on the calendar will never be the same.  After speaking with around 35 people from the Cincinnati area and beyond about their fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, sons, and daughters who were touched in some profound way by World War II, I feel totally humbled and grateful for everything the Greatest Generation did for our country.  For a period of about two months, in the run-up to the Ken Burns documentary premiere of The War on CET, I was responsible for corresponding with veterans or people who wanted to share stories of the veterans in their families.  A lot of people here at CET believed that once the Burns/Novick documentary series began that the calls, letters, packages, and questions would subside a bit and things for me in my corner of our building would go back to normal.  However, they increased as the series began airing. 
          When I would check the mail, there would be something new almost everyday for nearly a full month.  Looking at each letter and package was really like Christmas to a person thirsty for knowledge on WWII, because there was no way of knowing how inspiring, devastating, or utterly telling the materials inside would be about the Second World War.  There have been times I have opened one of these packages and examined the photos and letters and have felt, as some people say, that God was watching me.  These are stories that simply jump off the page, and grab you and shake you to the core.  I would come to the realization, after hours of working on scanning and organizing the materials that our community so generously shared with us that I felt an enormous amount of sheer respect and awe for these “everyday people”.  They said goodbye to their young adult lives to fight for their country, or never came home again at all.  
          All I can say in 2007, is thank you.  Thank you to the people who fought for human rights and an end to tyranny in places all over the world, from Eastern Europe to Northern Africa, the Philippines and New Guinea, Iwo Jima and beyond.  And while WWII was so big, and was the focus of the Ken Burns documentary and the local veterans history project we worked on at CET, I have to say that it made me realize that all of the servicemen and servicewomen are linked.  The stories I was reading from 1939-1945 easily relate to stories of those serving in the U.S. military today in the Middle East.  Thank you to all of you.  Veterans Day is the most important day of remembrance and observance in the United States from my (now more informed) perspective.
-Amanda