Veterans Day 2023
Thoughts on Freedom and Sacrifice Veterans Day is always a day for remembering the price that our military has paid over the years for protecting freedom here and all over the world. (At least I hope that’s what we have been defending.) The costs in lives and treasure are very evident and painful. The Price for Freedom is Always Paid I am old guy now and as a vet who participated in several of our conflicts - ostensibly about freedom - I have been thinking more deeply about what freedom means; what have we been defending? It seems we Americans have a very broad definition of the word freedom - and a singular bond with it. People in most other countries are happy to just have the freedom of a peaceful, decent life. Not us, we think of almost everything we can - and cannot - do in terms of freedom. Here's an interesting local example: A couple years ago t he city of St Paul decided to centralize trash collection, a fairly common thing in most cities. At that time the res