When I stood at the podium at the University of Delaware on Veterans Day, looking out across a sea of students, families, and community members, I felt something: hope.
Hope – because I know how powerful it is simply to show up.
For years, I’ve been deeply involved in efforts to prevent veteran suicide. It’s work that has taken me into conversations with grieving families, service members struggling to transition home, and clinicians fighting to understand a crisis that steals far too many of our veterans. In all of that time, one theme has surfaced again and again: isolation is deadly.
When a veteran loses the bond, the structure, and the sense of purpose they had in service, the world can become unrecognizable. And so much of their suffering is hidden. Quiet. Unspoken.
Which is why what I witnessed at UD mattered more than anyone in the audience may have realized.
The antidote to isolation is connection.
I told the students that day that veterans are watching us. Not to judge us, but to see how we carry ourselves in the world they fought to protect. They want to know if we see them. If we honor them. If we understand, even a little, what their sacrifice has afforded us.
This is why I believe so strongly that recognizing and supporting our Veterans cannot simply be limited to one day to say “thank you.”
If we truly want to honor our veterans – especially those who are struggling – we must live thank you.
Living thank you means:
- valuing connection over convenience
- choosing service over cynicism
- grounding our disagreements in dignity
- and remembering that the freedoms we exercise were bought at a cost.
It means being intentional about the light we bring into the world – not just on Veterans Day, but every day that follows.
When I shared stories in my speech, which you can watch below, of Delawareans who crossed oceans and centuries, who carried flags into battle, who crawled through mortar fire to save their brothers, who gave their lives so that strangers halfway around the world could experience safety or joy – I wasn’t trying to recount history.
I was trying to remind us of responsibility.
Our veterans lived lives of courage.
We are called to live lives of gratitude worthy of that courage.
And one of the most powerful ways we can do that is by refusing to let anyone – veteran or civilian – stand alone.
As I told the UD community, the 1% who serve need the 99% to be worthy of the world they defended. That begins with connection. With presence. With the kind of small daily choices that signal to our veterans: You are not alone. We are in this with you.
Showing up matters.
Living thank you matters.
And if we commit to that, together, we can be the light our veterans look for – not only in the bright moments of their day, but in the darkest corners of their night.
