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| (Image by Paul Whiting) |
Please Join Me In Honoring
Our U.S. Military Veterans
(Or, "Thank You For Your Service!")
Please join me in honoring
the brave men and women of
the U.S. Military by making a
donation to the veterans'
charities of your choice to
express thanks to and give
support for Our Veterans.
Please join me in honoring
Our Veterans by making a
donation to the veterans'
charities of your choice
in order to support the
men and women of the
U.S. Armed Services whose
sacrifices each and every day
make us and keep us free.
Please join me in honoring
Our U.S. Military Veterans
by making a donation to the
veterans' charities of your
choice in order to demonstrate
gratitude the men and women
in uniform who put their lives
on the line for Our Democracy.
Please join me in honoring
All U.S. Military Veterans
by making donations to the
veterans' charities of your choice
in order to respect all of those
who served their country in
the Unites States Military.
-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"
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My Writing About Donating To Veterans' Charities On Veterans Day (for 2012): Please join me in honoring the brave men and women of the U.S. Military by making a donation to the veterans' charities of your choice to express thanks to and give support for Our Veterans. –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2012, revised June 15th, 2022 and revised November 11th, 2022)
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My Writing About Donating To Veterans' Charities On Veterans Day (for 2013): Please join me in honoring Our Veterans by making a donation to the veterans' charities of your choice in order to support the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services whose sacrifices each and every day make us and keep us free. –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2013, revised November 12th, 2013 and revised November 12th, 2022)
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My Writing About Donating To Veterans' Charities On Veterans Day (for 2022): Please join me in honoring Our U.S. Military Veterans by making a donation to the veterans' charities of your choice in order to demonstrate gratitude for the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line for Our Democracy. –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2022 and revised November 12th, 2022)
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My Writing About Donating To Veterans' Charities On Veterans Day (for 2023): Please join me in honoring All U.S. Military Veterans by making donations to the veterans' charities of your choice in order to respect all of those who served their country in the Unites States Military. –Paul Whiting (November 11th, 2023)
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My Writing Notes:
The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: Please join me in honoring Our Veterans by making a donation on Veterans Day to the veterans' charities of your choice in order to say "Thank you for your service!"
Just so you know, I rewrote—and eventually replaced—this post's original poem, as I often do with my writing! And, at first, I changed how this post's original poem was written when I realized that the "haiku-style" poem I had initially written wasn't that great of a poem. So, I wanted to show you how this poem used to be written before I rewrote it and, then, replaced it with a new poem.
And it used to be written like this:
How do you sum up
a "Thank You" in a haiku?
There is no way to!
Then, I rewrote the "haiku-style" poem above, which I also eventually republish for Veterans Day 2022 on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog, as follows:
This haiku is to
say, "Thank you for your service"
on Veterans Day!
However, after I republished the rewritten "haiku-style" poem for Veterans Day 2022, I also updated quotes that I had written over the years about making donations to veterans' charities for Veterans Day! So then, I decided to emphasize the importance of honoring Our Veterans by encouraging others to donate to charities that support veterans as a way to celebrate Veterans Day.
Therefore, I decided to utilize those quotes in date order (or, chronological order) and I arranged the quotes as a Veterans Day poem in order to say "Thank you for your service" to Our Veterans—and to also encourage others to do what I try to do on Veterans Day by donating veterans' charities in order to honor Our Veterans!
And, thus, I replaced the original poem(s) with the aforementioned poem as it is written above.
Also, on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog where this post was originally published, beginning in January 2013, I tried to create a post for virtually every holiday and special occasion of which I was aware, but I realized by September 2014 that I did not have enough time and energy to continue posting for every holiday and special occasion. And I decided to keep the poems in that series which were the most relevant to my "Small All White in the Forest" blog, of which this is one.
And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest."
This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.
-Paulee
https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com
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November 11th, 2021 Update, Written Sometime After Midnight: I signed up on Charity Navigator yesterday, November 10th, 2021, to make donations for holidays, special occasions, or current issues, to highly-rated charities—including with the intention of making donations for Veterans Day to several highly-rated veterans' charities. However, I started having problems with being able to process the donations! Although, I used a smartphone, so that could be the issue. Anyway, I did attempt to donate to veterans' organizations for Veterans Day, but it's not going to work right now. So, I am going to hold off on donating until I can donate through a personal computer, since I may be having issues donating through my smartphone, if that is what was causing me to not be able to donate... –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2021, revised June 15th, 2022, revised November 11th, 2022, revised March 21st, 2023 and revised January 9th, 2024)
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November 11th, 2021 Update, Written Just After 9:00 AM: Success! I tried again later on in the day to donate to veterans' charities for Veterans Day on Charity Navigator and it worked! Plus, I also included a donation to Charity Navigator, because they are a charity too. And I really appreciate being able to utilize Charity Navigator's charity rating system in order to assess which charities receive their 'give with confidence' rating. I also appreciate being able to donate to multiple charities at the same time—all in one convenient transaction, rather than having to process individual donations on each charity's website—which makes supporting veterans' organizations via Charity Navigator that much more worthwhile! –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2021, revised June 15th, 2022, revised June 18th, 2022, revised November 11th, 2022, revised March 21st, 2023 and revised January 9th, 2024)
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November 11th, 2021 Update—Summary: I signed up on Charity Navigator yesterday, November 10th, 2021, to make donations for holidays, special occasions, or current issues, to highly-rated charities—including with the intention of making donations for Veterans Day to several highly-rated veterans' charities. However, I started having problems with being able to process the donations! ... But, I tried again later on in the day to donate to veterans' charities for Veterans Day on Charity Navigator and it worked! Plus, I also included a donation to Charity Navigator, because they are a charity too. –Paul Whiting (written November 11th, 2021, revised June 15th, 2022, revised June 18th, 2022, revised November 11th, 2022 and revised March 21st, 2023)
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November 11th, 2022 Update, Written On November 11th, 2023: I made one-time donations for Veterans Day to Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). –Paul Whiting (written December 7th, 2022 and turned into an 'update' from my 'July 7th, 2022 Update, Written On July 11th, 2022—Follow-Up No. 5, Written On December 7th, 2022' from my "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" blog on November 11th, 2023)
P.S.: I feel like I need to clarify why I didn't write an 'update' for Veterans Day 2022! You see, creative writing takes a lot of time and energy—and I was really busy with blogging toward the end of 2022, because of the Midterm Elections. Now, I did manage to create a "My Writing About Donating To Veterans' Charities On Veterans Day (for 2022)" for my "Thank You For Your Service!" post on both of my "Small All White in the Forest" and "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blogs. However, I didn't manage to write an 'update' about my Veterans Day donations for 2022! And I did not notice this error until I was searching for a "November 11th, 2022 Update," which I assumed would be available for me to utilize as a basis for my "November 11th, 2023 Update." Thus, I did find a reference to the donations that I made for Veterans Day 2022 on my 'July 7th, 2022 Update, Written On July 11th, 2022—Follow-Up No. 5, Written On December 7th, 2022' from my "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" blog, so that is why I turned that reference into my 'update' for Veterans Day 2022. (I hope that makes sense!)
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October 24th, 2023 Update No. 7 [My Writing About How I Have Changed The Way That I Label My Blog Posts 'Updates' For Any Additional 'Updates' That I Write, After The First 'Update,' By Using A Simple Numbering System, Which Starts With The First 'Update' (Originally From My Blog Post Titled, "I Am No Longer Being An Activist In The Same Way That I Was," Which Is On My "Poet, Artist and Philosopher" Blog)]:
I have changed the way I label the blog post 'updates' that I write because I oftentimes write more than one 'update' per day!
And in the past, I have labeled the second, third, fourth and fifth 'update' with the following extensions—on the days that I write more than 'update'—to differentiate any additional 'updates' from the first one, as follows:
[1st] Month Day, Year Update
[2nd] Month Day, Year Update—Continued
[3rd] Month Day, Year Update—Continued Further
[4th] Month Day, Year Update—Continued Further Some More
[5th] Month Day, Year Update—Continued Further Some More Than Before
However today, October 24th, 2023, I actually had more than five 'updates' to write, so I decided to change how I differentiate any additional 'updates,' from the first 'update,' by using a simple numbering system, which actually starts with the first 'update' that I write, as follows:
Month Day, Year Update No. 1
Month Day, Year Update No. 2
Month Day, Year Update No. 3
Month Day, Year Update No. 4
Month Day, Year Update No. 5
Month Day, Year Update No. 6
Month Day, Year Update No. 7
Therefore, that is why this 'update' is the seventh one for today! –Paul Whiting (written October 24th, 2023 and revised October 28th, 2023)
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November 11th, 2023 Update No. 1: In order to respect and honor the many sacrifices made by those who served their country in the U.S. Military, I made one-time donations for Veterans Day to Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Wounded Warrior Project (WWP). –Paul Whiting (November 11th, 2023)
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November 6th, 2024 Update No. 1 [My Writing About No Longer Being An 'Online Activist' In Any Way, Shape Or Form]: Due to Donald Trump winning the 2024 Presidential Election—and until further notice—I am no longer being an 'Online Activist' in any way, shape or form, which includes no longer signing petitions from political, social, environmental and charitable organizations, and no longer sending letters to my Representative and Senators in Congress, as well as no longer making donations to political, social, environmental and charitable causes. Full stop! I am also unsubscribing from any of the emails that I used to receive from political, social, environmental and charitable organizations. In fact, I am even cancelling all of my monthly political donations to the main Democratic fundraising and coordinating organizations, as well as to the USO (United Service Organizations), in addition to cancelling all of my monthly news organization subscriptions, or news organization donations, because I am absolutely terrified of this second Trump administration. And I fully expect that democracy in America as we know will be over! So, I am choosing to not engage in any 'activism' whatsoever—plus, I am not even sure that I will be exercising my 'civic duty' by voting in any upcoming elections because, as a (formerly) donating and a (potentially former) voting Democrat, I totally fear the retribution of President Donald J. Trump. Full stop! –Paul Whiting (written November 6th, 2024 and revised November 7th, 2024)
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This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 324 was edited on November 7th, 2024.
"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]
