Letter from the Editor, November 2017

Some lessons stick with you. I remember one summer afternoon in the car with my father and brother. Maybe I was in the 7th grade. Columbus Park Crossing was still new, and I had convinced my father to take me to Barnes & Noble. I left with a few new books and that excitement I still get when I leave any bookstore with something fresh to read. I didn’t notice the three young men walking on the side of the road, but dad did.

“You see those guys?” he said. “They’re soldiers from Ft. Benning.”

I don’t remember how my brother and I reacted, but I doubt we cared very much.

“Obviously I can’t do this today, I have you boys with me,” dad said, “but often times I stop and offer them a ride.”

“Why?” I said.

“In a lot of ways, they’re still kids. They remind me of myself at that age. Eighteen and just out of high school, expected to step up and fight and maybe die.”

“Why would they die,” my brother asked.

“I hope they don’t, but it’s young men like them who go overseas and fight and risk their lives so that we can spend days going to bookstores.”

My father enlisted in the Air Force, twice. His father was wounded on five separate occasions between landing in Normandy and liberating a concentration camp in Germany. My grandmother’s oldest brother was killed in a tank in France. My mother’s father served in the Army, in Germany, after the war.

When you’re from Columbus, you’re likely to have a similar family history. Chances are, you know more than a few who currently serve in the Armed Forces. And if you’re reading this, there is a good chance you have served or are currently serving.

November is an eventful month. While we look forward to evenings with family around turkey dinners—I certainly do—we are right to also take time to thank members of our Armed Forces, past and present. Veterans Day is Nov. 11. In our calendars this month, you will find many Veterans Day events, and I encourage you to not only attend but also invite friends and family. By reaching out to those around us and inviting them to honor and celebrate the service of our Armed Forces, we reiterate our communal commitment to this nation’s founding principles and continued support of those who, at home and abroad, protect those principles.

Also this month is National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week, about which we devote an article on page (#). We are only a community if we work together, and there are important ways that we can all do our part to help those experiencing homelessness.

This Thanksgiving, as I look around my family’s table, I will have the luxury of thanking veterans who live comfortable lives surrounded by loved ones. Unfortunately, many veterans will not celebrate the holiday so happily insulated. The hard truth is that many of our nation’s Veterans experience homelessness. This is a serious problem, nationally and locally.

I want to encourage all of our readers to commit some effort in two directions. I hope that we will all sound our voices in appreciation for those who serve. I hope that we all take some time out of our busy lives to do something, however small the act, to help ameliorate homelessness in our community. In so doing, I think we will find just how powerfully these two directions complete a circuit that encompasses all that is best in our collective spirit.

November is a busy month. It is a month, I think, for family, and it is a month that I have always eagerly anticipated. Let us look forward to what’s good while also working to improve what we can improve, which, I believe, is a whole, whole lot.

Thank you for reading,

Tom Ingram

Editor