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Today, like a year ago, COVID-19 will have a negative impact on some Veterans Day activities.
Some people still are fearful about gathering in group settings, even outside, such as along parade routes. Some veterans, especially those who are up in age, might be reluctant to attend free meals that some restaurants will be offering, because of fears about contracting the virus.
All considered, those concerns are understandable. This region still is experiencing a troubling level of new infections almost on a daily basis.
Despite all of that, the importance of Veterans Day cannot be undermined.
Veterans Day remembers all of this country's military personnel who served honorably, those living and those deceased, unlike Memorial Day in May, which is dedicated foremost to honoring the men and women who died while in the service of this nation.
It is accurate to say that many men and women who served in one of America's military services came face to face with enemies more lethal than the coronavirus, during the course of that service.
And, it also is important to acknowledge -- and remind others --that even veterans who served all of their military time in non-combat roles were vital to this country's security too.
Every year, men and women join the ranks of this nation's veterans. It can be said confidently that there is no greater source of pride than being able to attest to having stepped forward on behalf of this country's well-being by serving in one of its military branches.
That was true for soldiers of this nation who fought in World War I, the conflict from which Veterans Day evolved, and it remains true today.
In reflecting on what this day is about, people should think back to their history classes in school, where they learned that Veterans Day first was known as Armistice Day -- and that it was not until 1954 that use of the Veterans Day title became permanent.
President Woodrow Wilson issued a message to Americans on Nov. 11, 1919, exactly one year after major hostilities of World War I were formally ended. That day was, in fact, the first Armistice Day.
Although now more than 100 years old, Wilson's message remains relevant, and worthy of contemplation amid today's challenges on the international landscape. Parts of the message follow:
"A year ago today our enemies laid down their arms in accordance with an armistice which rendered them impotent to renew hostilities, and gave to the world an assured opportunity to reconstruct its shattered order and to work out in peace a new and juster set of international relations. The soldiers and people of the European Allies had fought and endured for more than four years to uphold the barrier of civilization against the aggressions of armed force. We ourselves had been in the conflict something more than a year and a half.
"With splendid forgetfulness of mere personal concerns, we remodeled our industries, concentrated our financial resources, increased our agricultural output, and assembled a great army, so that at the last our power was a decisive factor in the victory.
"Out of this victory there arose new possibilities of political freedom and economic concert."
An important question today is whether this nation is making the most of its possibilities and its foundation of freedom amid the horrors and challenges that the coronavirus has wrought.