By David Stanczak

Usually when I have two topics I really want to use for a Forum, one of them can wait a couple weeks. Not so today, which is November 11. When I was a little kid, that date was celebrated as Armistice Day, the day that ended World War I, the “war to end all wars”-we know how that one worked out. The day has since been renamed Veteran’s Day. However good or bad the ultimate results of any war the U.S, has been in, the wars have been fought, not with chess pieces, or money, or game tokens, but with real human beings, who put their lives on the line for this country and its citizens. Many of those did not survive the struggle and sacrificed the chance to live out their lives. Those that did survive we call veterans, and today is the day set aside to honor them. They are with us, in all ages, and in all kinds of mental and physical condition. This is not the place to deplore the downgrading of the holiday or the continuing scandalous inadequacy of VA facilities. It is the place to honor our veterans, to encourage you to do the same and to say thank you to them for their service.

Speaking of thanks, there’s a Thanksgiving message that won’t wait. The original American Thanksgiving, which predated the Constitution, involved giving thanks, not by stuffing ourselves so full of goodies that we are unfit for anything but sleep the rest of the afternoon, but by sharing our plenty. This year, you have an opportunity to observe a traditional Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving, by sharing with others.Home Sweet Home Mission and other local agencies that feed people who can’t afford the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, or who have no place to eat one, are critically short of turkeys. You can share in two ways. If you want to spring for a turkey, there are events for that purpose. Bring a turkey on Thursday the 12^th to Hardees at Oakland and Veterans from 10 to 1; or on Saturday the 14^th, bring it to Jewel at Cottage or Oakland between 9 and 1 or to the Veteran’s Wal-Mart between 10 and 2. Or drop it off any time at Home Sweet Home Mission or Midwest Food Bank. The second way you can share is by buying Turkey Gift Cards at Hy Vee. Each $2.50 card will feed one person at Thanksgiving.