We so often hear that our nation's freedom is not free. But what does that mean? Three days on the calendar this month make it clear. Nov. 11 is Veterans Day; Nov. 5 is Election Day; Nov. 28 is Thanksgiving Day.

Veterans Day is set aside to honor all the men and women who served in our armed forces. Some paid dearly for our freedom's defense: with their bodies, their minds, their comfort, their livelihoods, their lives.

We need to thank all those who laid their lives on the battle lines from France and Germany to remote Pacific islands, from Korea to Saigon, from Beruit to Bosnia, from Afghanistan to Iraq. We need to thank all those, including the guardsmen and reserves, who defend our shores from home. Because they serve and have served, most of us have never known and, God willing, will never have to know what it's like to pick up arms in defense of our freedom.

My dad was a career Army man. Though he traveled overseas for both World War II and the Korean war, fortunately, he served out of harm's way and retired just before Vietnam heated up. But when I look in his eyes and the eyes of other veterans whenever Taps is played, I get just an inkling of what must have gone on beyond the safe cocoon they gave us all to grow up in.

Coming of age just after Vietnam ended, I was one of those irreverent, naive kids who knew no evil. My first 45 rpm record, "The Ballad of the Green Berets," got lost among my teenage albums of 1960s and '70s protest music that belittled the military and questioned authority. Questioning was legitimate. Belittling wasn't. Yet, my parents tolerated my music with only occasional comment. They must have known someday I'd see the world through their generation's eyes.

Sure enough, Sept. 11 made it all too clear. There are evils in this world beyond belief; barbarians are at our gates. People want to kill us only because we're free.

My wife and I have a close friend, a commander in the Navy. Like many of us, he saw the Sept. 11 attacks on CNN. Only, he was on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson at the time, and it was sailing in the Persian Gulf. Weeks later, he helped direct the first retaliatory strikes on the Taliban and al-Qaida. I thank God for men and women like him who go to sea for six months, away from their families, to protect my family and freedom. Now, how I wish I had hung on to my old copy of the "Green Berets."

Election Day is the day all Americans are asked to pay the price for freedom. All that's asked is we offer our informed opinion. Voting is our responsibility as members of this democracy. How can we ask those in our armed forces to defend our freedom abroad, when we're not willing to participate in it at home?

John Gregg, the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, featured this month in our cover story, has served this democracy for 16 years as a state legislator. How many hours and days has he spent away from his wife and two growing sons to serve us?

He has strong opinions about our responsibility. "People should either run for elected office or offer assistance to those running for office … at the very least they should be well informed and vote," he said.

And that should be enough said.

Then he offered up the nugget that echoes what has been said for a long time in this publication and elsewhere: "We have the type of government we deserve."

Elected officials just mirror society. If we approach our democracy with apathy, if we don't take time to know the issues and the candidates, we won't get public servants and statesmen. We get me-first politicians, charlatans or worse.

A democracy is a living thing. Without exercise, it atrophies. Without input and interest, without stimulation and inspiration, without our challenges and cheers, democracy dies.

The best message we can send to terrorists is that American freedom and democracy have never been more vibrant. The open debate of ideas has never been more full. And the voice of every American has never sounded louder than at the polls on Election Day this year.

Thanksgiving Day binds the other two days together. It has its roots going all the way back to George Washington. But it was Abraham Lincoln's October 1863 proclamation during the Civil War that set the table for the national holiday we celebrate today.

Lincoln's proclamation, which we ran in full on this page last November, wasn't about turkey and the Mayflower. It was about Americans acknowledging God's blessings with one heart and one voice.

As we continue the battle against terrorists and prepare to battle other despots who seek to destroy us, we should recall Lincoln's proclamation. And, we should bear in our hearts and minds the words he spoke in November 1863 while dedicating a battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg. With vigilance and prayer, we must continue rededicating ourselves to Lincoln's sermon on the mount "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."