The Importance of Veterans Day

Tomorrow’s midterm elections are very important for the nation and I am glad that locally there have been voter registration initiatives for some months on our campuses to encourage students, faculty and staff to exercise our right to vote.  If you haven’t done so already, please vote tomorrow!

The right to vote has been obtained through struggle and has been defended dearly over the centuries.  It seems fitting then that this Sunday we remember those who have fought – and died – to defend our liberties and create a world where peace and justice are virtues for all people to embrace.  Veterans Day affords us that opportunity.  It is a time to thank and honor and remember our Veterans and our service men and women, who put themselves in harm’s way in service of our country, our freedoms, our democracy, and, yes, our freedom to vote.

This year is especially poignant in that Veterans Day also commemorates the Armistice that ended the First World War, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  As the guns fell silent one hundred years ago, and the eponymous phrase “All Quiet on the Western Front” was born, we think about a century when brave men and women have lived and sacrificed themselves for the cherished tradition of preserving democracy against dictatorship.  We have over 350 students currently serving in the military, and we can be thankful not only of their choice of MGA for their education, but their vocation and service in defending the right to education in their commitment to the military.  This Sunday church bells will ring out across the nation at 11am to mark the Centennial of the end of WW1.  I hope we will remember both the generations that have now departed us, and also those currently to whom we can be grateful for their military service.

Our Office of Veteran and Military Services will be publishing what we are doing to commemorate Veterans Day across our campuses, culminating in the Service of Remembrance that MGA holds on Coleman Hill, this year on Monday 12th November at 11:00 AM.  I hope you will participate in one of our Veterans Day events, and recall the past and present service that many have given to defend our freedoms, and to help safeguard the invaluable right to cast our vote tomorrow at the election booth.