Like most of you, I didn't live during the Second World War. As a result I will never be able to comprehend what it was like to feel that fear. I can't imagine being in a position of sacrificing my life for people that I never met. I can't imagine what it would be like to face an almost certain death, and a horrible one at that, at any given moment.

I realize that the sacrifices made were for an ideal. That ideal is freedom. Most of us don't even realize how free we are, for we have not had that freedom threatened to such an extent since that war. Freedom is taken for granted, and I, like many of you, am very guilty of taking it for granted. But the very fact that we can take this freedom for granted is a tribute to the brave men and women that fought and died to protect our countries and the future generations that they would spawn.

Let's enjoy that freedom and share it with the rest of the world. Let us hope that the closest we ever get to another World War will be in the form of an online videogame.

Cole Smith