Supporting our Veterans

Supporting the military has always been a priority in my family. While I think that is somewhat due to my family’s long history in America dating back to the Colonial Wars, I think the real reason is because of my Mother.

My Mother, Rebecca Means Jones, was a patriot. I know a lot of people who consider themselves patriotic but I know very few people who are true patriots.

She was raised a Southern Democrat and became a moderate Northern Republican. She was passionate about politics – I remember sitting in a campaign office as a four year old hunting for lollipops stuffed in drawers as she licked envelopes, made phone calls and eventually scooped me up to knock on doors.  She had a lot to say about various candidates running for office but never spoke against a sitting President. She wouldn’t tolerate any disrespect to the office and insisted we do the same.

I can still picture her standing in line during the Watergate hearings trying to grab a seat in between the events scheduled for my sister’s college graduation.  And how conflicted she was over the Vietnam War and then again over our recent military presence in Iraq. And while I know my Mom was privately concerned about our involvement in these wars, she never wavered on her support of our troops.   Well into her 80’s she was serving dinners to the young recruits at the Great Lakes Naval Station and she loved every minute of it.

Her father served in both WWI and WWII.  He had a distinguished career as an activated reserve officer and retired as a general in the Army. My mother’s brother-in-law (a West Point Graduate) died in WWII.  Two of my cousins are Marines. And their Father also had an illustrious career in the military. I can still remember the hushed conversations about “Uncle Frank” during the 1960’s as he flew for Air America during the Vietnam War.

So, in this month of Thanksgiving and as we approach Veteran’s Day, Jane and I sat down to reflect on the people for whom we are most grateful. And it goes without saying that topping our list are the brave men and women who defend both of our countries – in Jane’s case England and in mine America.

We decided to show our appreciation for our veterans by supporting a charity close to home. In choosing a charity, we wanted one that made a direct and immediate impact in someone’s life. While we were doing our research Jane read an article written by Jenniffer Weigel about Connie Payton’s commitment to our veterans. The article describes how the Payton Family and Concord Assisted Living joined forces to provide shelter for 17 homeless vets. We were so inspired by the story that we offered to help support the cause by donating a slow cooker and some of our spices to their upcoming “Appreciate our Veterans Night” scheduled for Saturday, November 16th.

We also wanted to highlight their annual Veterans Holiday Drive, so if you have extra toiletries around your home, please click on the picture above to see what items they need donated to their Veterans Project.

Finally, in keeping with our theme Jane found a wonderful cookbook called The American Veterans Cookbook. She loved the book not only for it’s inventive recipes like “Hot Dog Stew” (which while I’m sure delicious didn’t make our list) but also because 50 percent of the proceeds benefit the Armed Forces Veterans Homes Foundation. She had fun sifting through recipes in search of ones she could adapt for the slow cooker and found a few for you try.

We hope that you’ll join us this month as we celebrate our troops.

Zen Moment

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

-Maya Angelou