 Hello, I'm Dr. Joshua Weikert, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Civic Engagement here at Immaculata University. I am also a veteran of the United States Army. When I was 18 years old, I decided I was tired of classrooms and grades, and I wanted to go out into the world and do interesting things and make a contribution, and so I signed up to join the U.S. Army Reserve. But it turned out the joke was on me. After completing basic training at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri, the Army sent me right back into a classroom at the Defense Languages Institute in Monterey, California, where I graduated from the School of Middle Eastern Languages, studying modern standard Arabic, and after that I spent eight years as a reservist in the Military Intelligence Corps in the U.S. Army. Uniform service was a real opportunity, and it's one that I treasure to this day, it's one that I value. It's one I encourage everyone to consider at some point in their lives. Usually it's when we're young. And as we think about veterans in our Immaculata community, veterans in our lives, veterans in our families, and thinking about them on this Veterans Day, I want us to be thinking about recognizing those who are serving currently, those who will serve in the future, and those who served who are no longer with us. Veterans come from all walks of life. They represent every kind of American. When I served, I served with Yankees and Southerners, I served with surfers and farmers, I served with scholars and builders and truckers and medical techs. It's a wonderful and incredibly diverse community. There isn't one kind of veteran. Our nation's military service also represents the best kind of team because it can take those diverse members and put them in an occupation where it's not really an occupation, it's a true vocation. It lets every member contribute their talents and their best efforts and put those efforts to work in the service of others. While there are any number of virtues that veterans embrace and embody, what connects all veterans to me is that impulse towards service. Service is action. Service is effort. Service is contribution. And, you know, there's always a place for idealism when you're part of a great team, but for me the active and energetic doing of worthwhile things is really what it means more than anything else to be a veteran, a focus on deeds and not words. Most veterans continue to serve their communities and their families after their days in uniform are done. Any place where you see communities being built, children being educated, people being helped, sacrifices being made, I promise you, you will find veterans. Service is a habit, and like many habits that we develop when we're young, it's a difficult one to break as we get older and our world is all the better for it. So today, tomorrow, every day, from now until next November 11th, as we show our appreciation to the veterans in our community and our families, the best way we can thank them isn't with words, it's with deeds, it's by serving. President John Kennedy, himself a veteran, put it like this, he said, we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. With that charge in mind, I hope that you will thank the veterans among our Immaculata students and staff and faculty, the veterans in your own lives, and all those veterans who are no longer here to celebrate with us by contributing your time and efforts in whatever way you're able to make our community a better place through deeds and not words. Thank you very much. God bless you and best wishes for a happy and healthy Veterans Day and every day for the rest of the year.