By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The nation needs to “do better” by its veterans and can never fully repay them for everything they have given for their country, Mayor Liz Lempert said Friday at a local Veterans Day ceremony.
“We’re often too eager to send our young men and young women into combat without considering all of the horrible consequences,” she said standing in front of the All Wars Memorial. “And then we don’t fully support them when they return home by letting them go unemployed, without physical and mental health care and homelessness.”
Looking out to an audience of veterans, schoolchildren and others, the mayor recalled how America’s servicemen and women left behind families and gave their youth and that some gave their lives.
“We must do better by them and their sacrifices, including rededicating ourselves to the cause of world peace,” she said. “We owe them a debt we can never fully repay.”
Earlier in her remarks, she touched on the scars of battle that veterans carry through their lives, from injuries physical and psychological.
“On Veterans Day, it’s important to reflect on the fact that no person returns from war unchanged,” she said. “For every American lost in battle, many more are wounded. And for every wound we can see, there are many more that we cannot see — invisible wounds and lives radically disrupted.”
Ray Wadsworth, the chairman of the Spirit of Princeton, the nonprofit organization that sponsored the ceremony, told the audience to show its support for veterans. “Don’t be afraid to go up and shake their hand and thank them for their service,” he said.
Later, he pivoted to recognize police officers and said the country should honor them “as much as the veterans.” His words came the same week in which two police officers were shot, one fatally, in Pennsylvania. Mr. Wadsworth touched on the dangers that law enforcement face.
“You read the stories about them getting wounded out there, on the streets, for no reason at all,” he said.
Public historian and Princeton Battlefield Society board member Roger Williams, the keynote speaker, touched on the role New Jersey played in the American Revolution. He said that while places like Lexington and Valley Forge are better known, “the times that tried men’s souls took place right here.”
He said New Jersey was the scene of more than 296 battles and other fighting, more than any other colony and all within a 50-mile radius of downtown Princeton.
“To understand America’s struggle to become America,” he said, “we must only look out our own windows, where we live, where we shop, where we go to school.”
