Written on parchment paper and stored in the national archives, our nation’s rulebook survives to this day.

Over 200 years old, it works as a guideline for this country and holds it together with 26 amendments that guarantee our freedom and liberties.

As journalists, we think highly of the constitution and the almighty Bill of Rights that many Americans unfortunately do not know.

However, though all the amendments are equal in importance, there is one amendment that we believe should be defended, protected and well known by every single American: the First Amendment.

Without the First Amendment there would be no freedom of the press, no freedom of religion, speech, the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances or the freedom to assemble.

Journalists thrive because of the First Amendment, and we do all we can to make sure the public is aware of their rights that are granted

However, it is the countless soldiers that served in America’s many wars that made it possible for us to continue to report, write and share important information with our fellow Americans.

That is why the staff at The Daily Eastern News thanks our veterans and those who still serve today who made the sacrifice to stand in the line of enemy fire in order to make sure that we can continue to write, continue to protest and continue to live without fear of losing our rights.

To those men and women who never came back home, we want to thank you for making sure we still have the right protest war and the negative effects of it.

To those soldiers still overseas fighting a war that the majority of American people do not even want anymore, thank you for making sure we can still attend college, still vote and still work our way to the top of the food chain.

To the older brother of one of our edit board members who just went active duty and decided to stay in an Army that the rest of the world seems to hate to make sure his sister has a chance, thank you.

Of course, we understand that there is a lot of turmoil in our country and we understand that not everyone can agree with the recent protests, administration and “media.”

But protesting and expressing your rights to the full extent should not be seen as a sign of disrespect to those soldiers of wars past and current. Instead, it should be a symbol of thanks because we can still do it without being killed immediately after the fact and sign that what they did worked because we can still protest as freely as we want.

So we will continue to tell the truth and not be afraid, and we will continue to thank the people who helped ensure our right to do so.

As for our fellow peers, the staff at The Daily Eastern News encourages you all to thank a veteran this Veteran’s Day because regardless of disagreements and views, they helped make sure we can disagree with one another and have altering and sometimes distasteful views.