Veterans Day, for some

I spoke with a veteran today. He served in the Army for four years. He works for a company whose employees all had today, Veterans day, off as a paid holiday.

Well, not all of his company's employees had Veterans Day off. His department, which consists of about five or six workers, had neither the day off nor received holiday pay for this national day of remembrance and recognition--a day set aside to honor men and women like him.

He was working when I spoke with him. He was busy, getting work done that is much harder to do when the company is open for regular business. He had no complaints. He, like many of us in this current economy, is just glad to be working, though he did see the irony in the situation. His entire department, all veterans, was working on Veterans Day, without the benefit of the holiday pay that is graciously given to the other departments in his company.

So, who is this person? I won't say. But I will say this: the company he works for is the Wickenburg Unified School District.

This is not meant to be a slam against our school district or our school board. I was in business for about 28 years and I know that you cannot spend money that you do not have. Rather, this is an appeal to our staff's compassion. I don't think any of us got pay raises this year. But neither did we get pay cuts or loss of benefits; some departments got both. Perhaps we could take a collection for the others. If we really are a team and/or family, I think it's the right thing to do.


R. Burd
WHS
Wickenburg, Ariz