OFFERING PRAISE AND HELP FOR VETERANS
Officials say soldiers’ sacrifices not made in vain
In a Veterans Day ceremony to mark 100 years since the end of the Great War, archivist and attorney Mark Levenson told the story of Benjamin Rutstein, a World War I Army private who in his final moments wrote a note to his mother that he died a hero.
“With both legs mangled by shrapnel, he called for paper and pencil and wrote a letter to his mother. It was a wonderful letter,” Levenson said in the State House in Boston yesterday. “He told her that he was dying but that it was alright, he was dying a brave man for his country and for the freedom of his country.”
Levenson said the story of his great uncle, who died in 1918, represents the story of America.
Though much of the ceremony honored those fallen soldiers from the war to end all wars, it was also to express appreciation for the veterans still among us.
Acting Gov. Karyn Polito, stepping in for Gov. Charlie Baker while he was away with his family, spoke about the psychological repercussions that many veterans experience post-service.
“We know them as our heroes and when they come home, we say that to them, but what I worry about for them is that they see things and experience things that they can never erase from their minds,” Polito said. “They’re human. They’re heroes and they’re human and we need to remember that and respect that.”
Massachusetts has the most veterans’ services and benefits of any state in the country, according to Polito and the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Services Francisco Urena, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and is a Purple Heart recipient. They pointed to Veterans’ Service Officers, located in every community to help veterans transition when they return home and connect with resources.
“It’s bridging that gap, building the trust and saying that it’s OK to ask for help because our veterans, our service members are strong,” Urena said. “Sometimes their biggest flaw is being so strong that they feel that asking for help is a weakness and it truly is not, it makes them even stronger.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh spoke of the importance of Veterans Day at the 66th annual Fitzgerald Post Veterans Day Mass in South Boston.
“We should celebrate our veterans, we should celebrate the families that sacrificed loved ones and people that put their life in line for our country,” Walsh said “because everything we have in our world, in our society, the freedoms we have is due to the veterans fighting for this country.”