In Thanks to Veterans

Pictures of the liberation of the Netherlands from here

If you've been a long-time reader here, you know that I'm not fond of war. I do believe that it should be avoided at most costs.

But I can't sign on to the avoidance of war at all costs. After all, I exist because the leaders of a number of countries banded together to make certain that their countries stopped the tyranny of Hitler and Nazism. I exist because Canadians rolled into Rotterdam one day in May of 1945 and liberated Holland before my father died of starvation or some other war-related trauma.

My father can still reminisce in detail about that day when he and his teenage friends saw the first Canadian soldiers enter their subdivision. These men had left behind the safety and peace of a country that had never been attacked, seeing a just reason to send their men into harm's way for the sake of men, women, and children like my dad and his siblings. The days of starvation, violence and oppression were finally over.

Today there are situations in which starvation, violence and oppression reign. My country doesn't always take action to liberate the oppressed, to put men's and women's lives on the line for the sake of those who have been subjugated to greed, lust and power--in whatever form it exists. But sometimes it does. At times we don't know if we really perceived it right, if it was a "just cause," until much later. Yet sometimes we get it right, and getting it right makes the world a better place. To those who put their lives on the line to set others free, in whatever way they do that, we owe our gratitude on this Veterans Day.