As Jim Brown points out in his column, few people know the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day that’s held in May. Veterans Day honors all who served in the military and Memorial Day honors those who died for their country.

In England, “It seems as if everyone in the city wears a poppy to commemorate the huge British losses during World War I. More than 59,000 British soldiers are buried among the poppies in Flanders Fields in Belgium. Every school child learns of Major John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who tended to the dying on the battlefield and wrote the memorable war poem ‘In Flanders Fields.’

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

It’s a poignant poem and one that applies today as well as yesterday. God Bless all veterans who served their country so that ignorant, ingrate protesters of today are free to protest.”

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Milo A. Nickel is the former President and COO of Louisiana State Newspapers.