This time of year our thoughts turn to family and the holidays. We plan on large meals with the individuals we love (and some we tolerate).

We so enjoy the season of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Feast Day, and Christmas (just to cover a few), a season of banquets and gifts and kindhearted thoughts of unity.

A few special families share the season with a void they cannot satisfy until part of their family returns home, as the thousands of service men and women that serve their country so honorably each and every year wait to return home.

They have served, not when it is popular or while others place flags and ribbons on their vehicles, but each and every day of each and every year before and since the United States was founded.

These families know the true meaning of this time of year; the freedom to worship and celebrate however we wish without having to hide in cellars or back rooms for fear of punishment.

If these that have served honorably return disabled due to that service to their country seek assistance of the D.A.V. (Disabled American Veterans) we are there. These are the days of fundraisers for organizations, such as ours, to accumulate funds to assist disabled veterans for another year. Thoughtful volunteers post themselves at Golden Corral to take donations until November 16th. Feel FREE to give unselfishly each day.

To be born free is a gift, but to die free is a responsibility for which Americans live.