National Service (in which I might get a bit political)

Veteran's Day honors the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces. Many of those veterans went to war for our country, but many of them served in times of peace. My dad is a veteran. Several of my friends are veterans. I even have several friends who are currently serving in the military.
No matter what you think about this "war" that our country is currently involved in, there are still thousands of men and women who are a long way from home, in some pretty scary places, in the name of the USA, and in the name of the freedoms that we enjoy every day — even (especially!) the freedom to disagree with what our government is doing.
Last Wednesday, on Veteran's Day, the Heritage Flight Museum where I volunteer had free admission, activities, and fly-bys by several of the historic war planes that the museum owns. For a few hours in the morning, a local radio station had a live broadcast from the museum, inviting listeners to call in and share stories of service. My part of the event was inviting kids to make cards for a local soldier who is currently serving his third tour in Iraq. This is a program that the previous education director started, and something that I feel is worth continuing.

(Picture by Daniel Johnson, The Bellingham Herald)

In asking people to volunteer at the museum with me, I have gotten a (to me) suprising amount of negative response. People have told me "I just want to distance myself from anything that has to do with the war."
This response confuses the heck out of me. I don't care what you feel about the war, we are writing letters to a young man (my age) who is a long, long way from home. The letters from the kids say things like "I hope you are safe," and "you must miss your mom a lot." If you want to connect these statements - which are written by seven year olds - to a view on the war, to me they seem more anti-war than pro-war. I see nothing pro-war about wanting someone's son to get home safe.

The museum tries to be very clear that it is not a political entity. It is not a military museum. It does not support or oppose the war - it is a nonprofit museum dedicated to the history of American aviation. The thing about American aviation, though, is that a lot of it was developed by the military. Thus, we have a lot of warbirds. Plus, they are pretty awesome:

The way I see it, I am serving my country, for the second year. I am in National Service. I am doing it to help others, to work for what I believe in (education), and, honestly, because the government is giving me a (very) little money to use towards furthering my education. People who join the armed services - another form of National Service - do it to help others, to get an education, to work for what they believe in (such as democracy, human rights, and freedom), and so the government will help them pay for their education. We're really not so different.
But there are differences. I have a family who knows I am safe. They might not get to communicate with their families for weeks at a time. No one shoots guns at me or plants bombs where my car might be driving. So when I can help children make cards to send to someone my own age, who is thousands of miles from home, I jump at the opportunity.