Veterans Day

Marines stand at attention at Camp Delaram in Afghanistan in 2010. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has removed the military's ban on women serving in combat. [Paula Bronstein/Getty Images. Photo via.]

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, in which we honor people who have served in the military. I want to say thank you to the women and men who have honorably served this country, and again observe that, when I write about social justice issues every day, I'm advocating for veterans.

And I would like to do a little more of that today, by asking anyone who lives in the US and has a moment in their day to contact your Senators here and your Representative here, irrespective of party affiliation, and urge them to really and truly "support the troops" by:

1. Supporting full advance funding of the Veterans Administration so the nation's veterans never have to worry about their support programs being subjected to the whims of political partisan bickering.

2. Supporting Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's legislation which would remove the military's sexual assault prosecutions from the chain of command and "assign independent, trained, professional military prosecutors the task of prosecutorial decisions for any crime punishable by at least one year of imprisonment."

Please feel welcome and encouraged to leave additional ideas for teaspooning on behalf of veterans in comments.

Thank you to all the veterans who have served this country with decency in a military capacity, who have been willing to risk their lives to defend its borders, resources, and people.