Family says thanks

    The family of Lori Moore would like to thank all who supported the golf tournament in memory of Lori Moore. We are also appreciative of all who helped in our time of loss. A very special thanks to Chad, Charles, Janie and Kevin Thrash along with Whynot Motorsports Park for putting it on. She was truly a race fan and great friend that will be missed forever. Always in our heart.

Sharon, Darrell, Brent, Kaitlyn Moore and longtime companion Wayne Baker

Thank you very much

    My hay barn caught fire Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, at about 10 a.m. from a spark from a hand grinder. I had a little over 100 rolls of hay in the barn. The Meehan, Meridian South, and Lost Gap Volunteer Fire Depts. responded. They not only saved my barn they saved over half my hay. These guys are great! They all had a job and were so well organized it was unbelievable. They worked tirelessly from 10:25 a.m. until 5 p.m. You don’t know how good these firemen are or really appreciate them until you need them!

 

Larry Drew

Meridian

What is a veteran?

    Some veterans bear visible signs of their service…a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside themselves…a pin holding a bone together. A piece of shrapnel in the leg or perhaps another sort of inner steel where a bone should be.

    Except for parades, the men and women who have kept America strong and free wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a veteran just by looks. What is a veteran? He is the POW who went away as one person and came back as a very different person or didn’t come back at all. He may be the parade riding old guy who pins on his metals with a prosthetic hand and is so proud to show them off to other proud Americans.

    He may be one of the three anonymous heroes in the tomb of the unknown soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery who must forever preserve the memory of all the vets whose valor and bravery dies unrecognized with them on some battlefield or in the ocean deep.

    Who is a veteran? He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, palsied now and aggravatingly slow. Years ago he helped liberate a Nazi death camp and wishes every day that his wife was still alive to hold him when the nightmares come so often.

    He is an ordinary but extraordinary human being, a person who gave some of his or her life’s most vital years in service of their country, and sacrificed their ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs. He is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony to the finest, greatest nation ever.

    So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country as a servant of our dear old Uncle Sam just lean over and say thanks. That will mean more than any medal they might have been awarded.

    Who is a veteran? The man across the street or the person down the road or maybe behind the grave marker somewhere. We must remember Memorial Day and Veterans Day each year and the two small words that mean so much — thank you, veterans.

Ken Kinard

Meridian