Observations for Veterans Day

Filed under: Opinion |

Once again, we are about to observe Veteran’s Day so with the world situation as it is today we should all think about the possibility of an armed conflict and the consequences of such a conflict.

Why is it that human beings can’t get along? We are supposedly the highest order and the most intelligent of species in the animal kingdom. But, are there any other species that continually kill its own kind? Is this intelligence at its best? For one reason or another we can’t seem to get along together.

Helen H. Barnette states that there have been 967 major wars in the history of the western world from 500 B.C. to 1925. A war occurred on an average of every 2.5 years during that period. Periods of peace as long as a quarter of a century have been very rare. Since 1925 there have been many big and little wars all over the world.

Our forefathers came to this country because they were denied freedom. This country has had to fight to uphold its freedom more than once. Without our freedom, we might not be able to enjoy the life we have now.

Young men and women, sometimes as young as 16 years old, have served in our armed forces. They were good citizens, who answered the call from their country and defended the freedoms and principles of this country. Men and women proudly served and continue to serve this great land of ours.

Our freedom has always been worth protecting and has come with a price. That price has been paid with the loss of life. War is not what you see in the movies or television; nobody really dies in those stories. War is about death, dying and destruction of people and resources. It is a terrible waste! It is the forcing of one people’s will on another.

In the words of John Stuart Mill: War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which things that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

No military man or woman would tell you that they like war. On the contrary, they would like to avoid war. But, they all will tell you that we need a strong military to protect all of our freedoms. We cannot lose what our forefathers fought and died for and we must preserve our freedoms for future generations.

Remember the veterans, past, present and future this Veteran’s Day. They served and will continue to do so to keep this country great. Remember that the veterans did what they had to do. I am sure that they would have rather been home than on a battlefield but they were there! From Yorktown to Gettysburg, from World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam to the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq, they were there!

Bill May

Colorado Springs