AN OMISSION: The Era news staff, myself included, were chastised
in a letter to the editor yesterday for failing to mention our
soldiers serving overseas in our annual Thanksgiving Day editorial
last Thursday.

The man who wrote the letter, an Army veteran from Eldred, was
right. We should have mentioned our troops, particularly in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

In our defense – in the staff’s defense, I should say –
reporters are always encouraged to be thankful for not the big
things in life but the little things that we so often overlook. You
know, stop and smell the roses. And that’s why, as our critic
correctly pointed out, many expressed gratitude for things like a
simple cup of coffee or pizza.

In the newspaper’s defense, too, we pride ourselves on covering
every patriotic event thoroughly – veterans day, Memorial Day,
World War II anniversary stories, Iraqi veteran stories. When local
soldier Jamie Himes Dana came back from the Iraq War with severe
injuries our coverage was good enough to win an Associated Press
award.

In other words, we don’t take the criticism lightly. We consider
ourselves and this newspaper to be unquestionably patriotic.

Nonetheless, our critic was right. We were wrong.

My father was a veteran of World War II and my husband served in
the Vietnam War so I am keenly aware of the sacrifices made by our
soldiers.

Perhaps our oversight is symptomtic of the Iraq War itself.
There was no draft and our soldiers are “volunteers.” “We” – normal
Americans – have not had to pay the price and, consequently, we
have taken the sacrifice of others for granted.

That was wrong. “Volunteers” or not, they are Americans who
literally and figuratively are providing our freedoms at home
including, as our critic so aptly pointed out, the freedom of the
press. Yes, the writer does not preserve that freedom. The soldier
does.

We do know that, and won’t take it so lightly again.

PRONOUN: Before English teachers galore write us, we are asking
our readers indulgence as we switched pronouns in the article
above. Round the Square always demands the royal “we,” but we
couldn’t pull off the one above without an occasional “I” or
“my.”