"Help Us Not Forget Them" [VIDEO]

More than 75 people showed up to celebrate Veterans Day on Friday, 11/11/11 at 11 a.m. on the town green.

There was music and an honor guard with a three-volley salute along with words of praise, remembrance, and of hope that wars fought and being fought will some day secure peace. As inspiring as the speeches and the unconditional support from the crowd were, even more inspiring were the Veterans who attended, including some who are even now battling injuries and illness but refused to let that keep them down.

"God, we thank you for these men and women who have responded to the call to defend our freedom," said the Rev. Chris Nichols of the First Congregational Church, who gave the invocation. "We gather now to give you thanks for those who protect us, in many cases lying down their lives that we might live freely to pursue our own destinies.

Lord, we cannot repay this gift they gave us ... we remember those who were wounded, who lived changed lives because of their desire to protect our freedom. Help us not forget them."

"The game is more than the player, the ship is more than the crew"

Wally Stone, the sexton of the First Congregational Church, was one of several others to give a moving address.

"Was has taught us the lesson of obedience to command. The game is more than the player ... and the ship is more than the crew.There is a greater discipline we must now pursue if we are to preserve this virtue of obedience in our quest for an honorable world peace. That is obedience to laws we, ourselves, make ... the voluntary discipline of leadership," Stone said.

"Under our system of government we may change the laws by majority rule. We may persuade our neighbors to new theories or new courses. We may advocate in free elections the choice of beterans or plans.

"This is the virtue of discipline which must be ours in peace"

As good citizens, we follow the choice of the majority, whether that be the choice of the individuals or not," Stone said. "This is the virtue of disciple which must be ours in peace. This is the lesson we must learn at home, in school, on the playing fields, in organizations, in the community and in the Nation.

It is the lesson of voluntary obedience to the decisions of the majority."

We must not be unmindful either of the conclusions of other peoples with whom we have joined in the quest for an honorable world peace, this is the highest order of disciplines."

"A Veterans service affects us all each day"

Selectman Joe MacDougald, in his address, spoke about his family members who had served and invoked one of his own personal heroes, another veteran, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the Supreme Court Justice

"A veteran’s service affects us all each day. Today we have 23 million veterans living in the United States. Nearly a quarter million live in Connecticut. On this special veterans day, we have troops in harms way, but we also have troops coming home.

So, what better way to welcome our returning heroes than to encourage everyone, including me, to think of Veterans Day less like a single day and a more like the way Justice Holmes did - Not as something in the past for which we are grateful, but as Something vibrant that affects us every day. We would not be who we are …We would not be where we are without the service of all our veterans from all time.

Each veterans service never expires – it lives on to form our cumulative freedom. It hangs in our closets and protects us ---- it is all around us --- we just have to recognize it. So please join with me in thanking and remembering them today and every day."