Veterans Day Message
November 11, 2020
Dear UM Family,
Today is Veterans Day, and on behalf of the University of Montana, I want to recognize and thank all the veterans in the UM family and in our community for their selfless service to our country. I am deeply grateful for the tremendous sacrifice of the men and women who over the course of our nation’s history have given so freely of themselves to protect the safety and liberty of others.
In recognizing this service, I also want to acknowledge and thank the family members of veterans and current servicemembers, who bear the incredible burden not just of supporting those serving in uniform, but also the challenge of managing families and households in their absence. Their service and their sacrifice are quiet and often unnoticed, but profoundly important.
To our student veterans, thank you for choosing to attend UM. We are grateful you are part of the UM family. You make significant contributions to our campus community, and I assure you we will continue to provide support and services as you navigate your UM experience, assist you in fully utilizing your service-related education benefits, and advocate for you as you build lives and careers of impact beyond UM.
While we pause on Veterans Day to honor and thank those who’ve served our country in uniform, we also acknowledge the important role every American plays in protecting the ideals of this nation. In honoring the soldiers who gave their lives at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln urged our country to acknowledge their sacrifice as an imperative for every American “to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
Today, nearly 160 years later, that work remains unfinished as we continue to work toward, as our Constitution states, “a more perfect Union.” This shared work, to me, also rests at the heart of why we celebrate Veterans Day – to build upon the example of service set by our veterans and to recommit ourselves to the ongoing effort to promote and protect the ideals that embody what is best about our country. These ideals and the idea of an American democracy are ours to continuously nurture: the idea that all people are created equal and that everyone – regardless of who they are, where they came from, or who their parents are – should have an equal shot at success. The idea that no person is above the law. The idea that we all should have an equal say in choosing our leaders and shaping the future direction of our country.
I am honored to be part of an institution that plays a key role in this effort, an institution that is committed to fostering inclusive prosperity and democracy and to shaping informed, thoughtful, civically-engaged leaders for the future of our community.
Thank you again to our veterans, and on this important day when we acknowledge their service and sacrifice, let us each commit ourselves to continuing their important work.
Seth Bodnar
University of Montana President
Watch President Bodnar's Veterans Day Speech to Frenchtown Students.