To the editor:

Memorial Day and the upcoming Financial Town Meeting are on my mind. Normally, I'd be home. Normally, I'd be at both. In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, I would likely hear "thank you for your service" a bit more frequently than normal, especially if I were in uniform for a drill weekend. At the FTM, I would have been sitting quietly on stage as an elected representative of the town, having had the honor of being chosen for the COA almost two years ago.

This year I won't be at any Memorial Day parades, or at Town Hall to hear the Gettysburg Address with my kids. I won't be at the FTM for the same reason I stepped down last June: after leaving the COA I have spent much of the year on a deployment to Resolute Support Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.

It's been a long-feeling year, and not over yet - but in thinking about these two events now, I'd like to reverse the usual formula and thank some others for their service. To start, I'd ask those that thank a veteran also take the time to thank the family - the sacrifices are born by more than just the family member who goes forward.

And perhaps because part of our mission over here is shoring up a troubled democracy, my thoughts run another way too. I'd ask you to thank those among our civil servants, volunteers, and elected representatives who patiently and consistently strive to keep things quietly working. Please thank them even more so if they have taken the bruising task of trying to make things better - of challenging complacency, of looking to navigate by the hard facts and not feelings, and if they will calmly debate with each other to forge the better compromises.  In a way, I feel they have had my back while I've been here.

Too often their work is taken for granted or ignored until dramatic moments - be they national headlines or, locally, perhaps a more energetic than normal FTM. Too often those that have dared to put themselves out there, get elected, and try to make a change are personally attacked by those who can't find a better way to make their argument than the politics of rage and exaggeration. But I know quite a few folks in town, brave and resilient in their own way, who've risen to the challenge across the years - and I thank them.

If I were at the FTM, there's a few I would vote for COA too. Only I won't be there, and I won't name them here. But I suspect if you listen close, beneath the tumult of the public discussion, you'll be able to pick out exactly who they are, who is worthiest of your public trust.

Then I'd ask come Memorial Day weekend, that you spend a thankful moment reflecting on all that goes into safeguarding and perpetuating any democracy - from fallen soldiers to other forms of service with integrity.  Maybe spare another thought for the partners we are trying to help here - Afghanistan has its fallen soldiers aplenty, some 28,000 since 2015, and more than ever I think on the quality civil servants required to translate that sacrifice into a durable reality. I hope they can.

For my part, to those home and here - Thank you for your service.

Scott Douglas

Barrington, RI / Kabul, Afghanistan