Day To Thank Veterans

Sonora, CA — Today is Veterans Day, and most government offices, banks and schools are closed.

There is also free entrance into all National Parks, such as Yosemite. To read a story about various events taking place across the Mother Lode, in honor of Veterans, click here.

Governor Jerry Brown has also issued a Veterans Day Proclamation For California. You can read it below:

“Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, a holiday commemorating the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. All too soon, it became clear that this had not been the “War to End All Wars” as some optimists claimed. After a second global conflict that dwarfed the first in its magnitude of destruction, countries around the world began changing their observance to encompass all conflicts and honor those who served. Our own Veterans Day was established as a national holiday by congressional resolution and presidential proclamation in 1954.

Today, over 2 million veterans live in California. Among them are men and women who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War and our recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as various smaller engagements and peacetime deployments. As we remember these brave Americans today, we should consider not only their valor and suffering in the service of our country, but also the challenges they face upon returning home.

Our veterans suffer from high rates of disability, poverty, unemployment and homelessness. We cannot glibly claim to honor our heroes while leaving them to suffer from social and economic ills. For this reason, I issued Executive Order B-9-11, calling for the formation of an Interagency Council on Veterans to coordinate the efforts of state agencies assisting veterans in their transition to civilian life.

This Veterans Day, let us welcome all returning veterans with open arms and, as President Eisenhower wrote in his 1954 proclamation, “Let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts will not have been in vain.”