Tuesday, November 12, 1996
Honor Veterans through tranquility
It’s Veteran’s Day (or shortly thereafter) and I can’t help but
think about what that means as I pass the thousands standing at
rock-solid attention along Veteran Avenue on my trek from Lot 30 to
our cheery campus.
I used to park in Lot 3, making Sunset my offramp. And I would
get chills as I drove past this base, the white stones flashing
through the trees and pre-dawn haze. But it wasn’t because of some
lame fear of graveyards, rather a realization that for each of
those that lay there, dozens more were left here, a mother and
father, sisters and brothers. People who are proud of someone they
can no longer hug. Walking along Veteran, I can only think how
beautiful these people are and how much I take for granted the life
they have afforded me. And just across the street I see a police
car parked in Lot 31. I don’t know why it’s there, but I surmise
they are there to protect someone from another incident like the
one in Lot 3 on the first day of school, or the one behind the
ticket office around the same time.
These young men and women sleeping along Veteran Avenue died
fighting for a society where we take the freedom they gave us and
use it to rape and murder our own brothers and sisters.
I’ve never understood war, nor do I dispute that its aims are
not always what we are told, but I do believe that those who take
part in it truly believe that they are sacrificing their own lives
so that those who are left behind might be given some guarantee of
a better one. I can think of no better way to honor those people,
who now belong to all our families, than by creating a world where
peace and love reign. Where we can proudly stand anywhere along
Veteran Avenue and say, "No, we don’t need to kill more people to
make this world a better place. No, you did not die in vain. No,
you did NOT die in vain, and thank you."
Mike Severa
Fourth-year
Linguistics / computer science