V-E DAY:  When I was a child, everyone knew what V-E Day meant.  It was the day we celebrated victory in Europe (V-E) in World War II.  It was the day the war against Nazism was won.  The war against Japan would go on for another three months. 

Now V-E Day is largely forgotten.  The youngest veterans of World War II would be in their late 80s now.  Soon they will all be gone.  We used to depend on newspapers to remind us every year, but I'd be surprised if most young "journalists" today have ever heard of V-E Day.  After all, learning about Western civilization is not considered chic in the colleges they attended.  And the only things many high-school students know about World War II is that we used the atomic bomb and interned Japanese-Americans. 

But some patriots will always remember the sacrifices, not only of Americans, but those of Allied nations, in defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan.  And we recall those who, before World War II, warned of what was coming, and were called warmongers in return.

Today Germany and Japan are allies.  That shows that horrible ideologies can be defeated, and replaced by societies that are much better.  But the defeat must come first.  I fear we're forgetting that important lesson today.

May 8,  2016