Look around the neighborhood this Veterans Day, and consider who out there might be a veteran.

In 2010, the U.S. Census found that 4,171 out of 29,872 people in Jefferson County qualified as veterans.

And you might not recognize them.

There are veterans of all ages these days. There are World War II veterans, Korean War veterans, Vietnam vets, and veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We are still creating “veterans” today, many of them with young families that have moved from base to base, country to country, conflict to conflict. Some have settled in our community.

For some veterans, returning home is not easy. The suicide rate among older veterans, 50 and older, is still high. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has found that there is a 22 percent higher risk of suicide among veterans when compared to nonveteran adults.

Homelessness also has been a problem for veterans, with an estimated 40,000 veterans reported homeless on any given night in the United States – and that includes a few in our own community who have stayed at the Jefferson County Winter Shelter.

On Saturday, Nov. 11, American Legion Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26, which hosts that Winter Shelter, also plans to host a Veterans Day ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m.

If you haven’t gone to one of these events, perhaps it is a good time to share a moment with your family and educate them on why they are taking a day off from school.

It’s a day to remember a loved one who fought in a foreign war, a friend who signed up after high school and lost his or her life, a neighbor whose life was changed because of the experience.

Remember that on Veterans Day, you are honoring all veterans who fought in all wars.

Odds are, someone in your family or neighborhood is a veteran.

Take this day to remember that person.

And while you do, feel free – because we are free – to hope that there will be fewer veterans in the future, not because they fought and died, but because no one had to fight.

– Allison Arthur