On Veterans Day, Stanford and Palo Alto gathered at the Hoover Institution to mark something that often goes unspoken: the people who make everything else possible.
Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, was the keynote speaker. She didn't talk about strategy or geopolitics. She talked about the people themselves.
"What I saw was these extraordinary human beings, these extraordinary patriots who had taken up arms to defend us," Rice said. She described the military as composed of individuals "from all over the country – all colors, all shades and sizes, all heritages, all experiences – to be a part of this extraordinary force that defends us at the bottom lines of freedom."
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Start Your News DetoxThe event drew a particular crowd: 102-year-old Navy veteran Ernestine Faxon, who served in World War II, sat alongside Marine Corps veteran Manny Velasco, who served in Vietnam. Velasco received a quilt of valor from the South Bay Blue Star Moms organization during the ceremony. These weren't abstract figures. They were neighbors.
Stanford itself is home to 36 undergraduate and over 100 graduate student veterans — people who've already served and are now pursuing education. Across Palo Alto, more than 1,100 veterans live in the community. Michele Rasmussen, Stanford's vice provost for student affairs, reminded attendees of a simple fact: the advantages Americans have — the freedom to innovate, to build, to pursue knowledge — rest on the protection these men and women have provided.
Rice reflected on her own path to Secretary of State, noting how her story exemplifies the American story itself. "Progress together, progress through our institutions, progress because we keep an eye not just on who we were and who we are, but who we want to be," she said. "And progress that is possible because we are protected by the men and women that we celebrate today."
It's easy for gratitude to become rote, especially on designated days. But this gathering suggested something different: a community actually naming the people in its midst, remembering their presence, and acknowledging what their service made possible.
