What Unites Us: Veterans Day In Texas

Let me begin this writing by giving a salute to my fellow comrades in arms who were brave enough to sign their names on the dotted line to defend and uphold the promise and ideals of America. No matter your reason for joining, you still made a commitment to fight for our nation if called upon and for that, you have my utmost respect.

As someone who served as well and did a tour of duty in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the military taught me many things, discipline being one but the most important thing I learned is that when there is a shared mission, we put our "differences" and "opinions" to the side and work together to accomplish our shared goal.

I had the good fortunate of serving with men and women from all 4 corners of America, many of different faiths and political thoughts and races. Like everyone else, we had differences of opinions on things but when it came time to go "down range", our sole focus was the mission and making sure EVERYONE came home safely.

After leaving the Army, I spent time working as an OTR truck driver and I drove across all 4 corners of this country, again, talking to and interacting with many different people and the one thing I found in my travels is this: We all want what's best for each other in America. We sometimes just vehemently disagree on WHO should make it better. It starts with us as a people.

As we spend this day united in our thanks for those who have served, take a moment to remember that this same UNITY can apply to working on being the best America we can be. These last few years and the pandemic has caused us to forget that if we find the things that UNITE us instead of divide us, we can create the America we all want to see.

Because trust me, despite the rhetoric, we AGREE on more than we know if we took the time to listen to each other or agree to disagree. Its something we learned to do in the military, we accomplish the mission...together.