On Veterans Day, Texas lawyers should pause to reflect on the freedoms veterans secured for all Americans and our duty as attorneys to further those freedoms. While this solemn day was originally enacted in 1938 as a legal holiday honoring World War I veterans on the annual anniversary of that war’s armistice, it was expanded in 1954 to a holiday honoring all U.S. veterans.
I learned to value military service, and the freedoms it bestows, at an early age. My great-great-great-grandfather, Andrew Myers, served with the Union Army during the Civil War. Although he was a first-generation German immigrant who probably spoke little to no English, he put his life at risk to fight for the values that attracted him to this great nation: the belief that every person, rich or poor, is created equal; no matter a person’s origins, nothing is unattainable in the United States for those who work hard.
