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Freedom: Long may it wave

| May 25, 2007 12:00 AM

By Paul Fugleberg

Our hope is that the bridge dedication and other events will go well this Freedom Weekend. It’s always appropriate to honor the men and women who have sacrificed much for their country throughout its history.

All wars have a common denominator — sacrifice and pain. Certainly Lake County residents have been impacted by this in WWI, WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Desert Storm, and Iraq. There are few areas throughout the nation that have been untouched by the trauma of wartime death or injury to loved ones.

Unfortunately, it will happen again in the future. So-called wars to end wars have yet to succeed.

Wars usually leave festering sore spots that flare up again in the future. Mankind, despite all the wondrous technological breakthroughs and scientific discoveries through the ages, has yet to master the Golden Rule.

We have to keep trying to achieve that goal.

But reality is that to protect and maintain our freedoms, we must remain militarily — and morally — strong. With that in mind, we thank our veterans past, present and future. And we need to renew our commitment to fairness, integrity, decency, honor and justice in everyday life.

After all, it’s for all these goals that so many have died in service to their country.