This is the third post I've written on Veteran's Day. I plan to do this every year from now on; even after I stop blogging (if I ever do).

I want to do this because I have reconnected in these years with three things I'm not sure I knew enough about or valued enough beforehand.

• My love for this country and it's polyglot people.

• My affection for the quotidian, undramatic, unRomantic events that make up most of our lives.

• My incredible debt to and respect for the members of our military, the average men and women who put on uniforms and defend both our country and our undramatic daily lives with far above-average courage, commitment, and skill.

So it started in 2002 when I wrote something about Veteran's Day over at Armed Liberal. Here's what I wrote in 'I Started To Write About Veteran's Day...':

...and to thank the veterans alive and dead for protecting me and mine.

And worried that what I wrote kept coming out sounding either too qualified or would be interpreted as being too nationalistic.

And I realized something about my own thinking, a basic principle I'll set out as a guiding point for the Democrats and the Left in general as they try and figure out the next act in this drama we are in.

First, you have to love America.