By Kevin Johnson
Mayor of Sacramento
The last soldiers drafted into the US military are now pushing age 60. Mandatory military service was discontinued in 1973, which brings a special significance to the people we recognize today, on Veterans Day.
Since the draft ended, soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen entered service not at the request of their government, but rather because of a desire to serve their country. The voluntary system means that everyone who wears a military uniform has made a choice – a decision to put personal needs aside and become part of something larger and more important.
Military service requires sacrifice, discipline, and the courage to face the ultimate risk. In this way every soldier, drafted or undrafted, active or retired, is an inspiration.
Those of us in public service have an obligation to share that inspiration with the civilian community. At the Mayor’s Office, we have worked to motivate Sacramentans to donate time and energy through our Volunteer Sacramento initiative. In 2009, our community logged over one million hours of service - more than double our initial goal of 500,000 hours. In 2010, we are on pace to log three million volunteer hours.
This makes Sacramento one of the most caring and service-minded cities in the nation.
Volunteer Sacramento recently launched “Sacramento Ready” - a new regional partnership of local governments, nonprofits and faith-based organizations to provide emergency preparedness and response information to residents in the Sacramento area.
At the launch for Sacramento Ready this past October, we heard from Air Force veteran and retired pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger - the “Hero on the Hudson" - who famously landed a commercial airline plane safely on the Hudson River after a bird-strike knocked out the plane's engines.
Captain Sullenberger's message was incredibly relevant and compelling: always be ready – you never know when it’ll be your turn to serve.
His remarks captured an essential quality of all who serve, none more than the countless veterans who have carried the U.S. through wars, depression, and social change up to the present day.
Today, our country faces several challenges. Many people – including some Americans – believe our greatness has passed.
I don’t believe that.
Because if we all summon the same spirit of service, demonstrated by Captain Sullenberger and others like him, our greatness will never be in question.
And if we need inspiration, we know where to look: toward the people we salute on Veterans Day.
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