A growing number of nations want to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  “Every time there is an international economic summit, it seems that some Chinese mandarin reiterates the now familiar complaint that the greenback needs to be replaced as the world’s de facto reserve currency” (Time, July 21, 2009).

NYC schools can now give chemical contraceptives and the “morning after pill” to under-age high school girls (New York Post, September 24, 2012).  Under the guise of keeping young girls from dropping out of school, nurses distribute medication without informing parents, to girls having “unprotected sex.” Ironically, the same schools do not allow pain medication (like Tylenol) to be given out.

I remember seeing my mother sew a pouch in my father’s long johns with their life’s savings in it, when news of bank failure came many years ago. My father went to work carrying a shotgun. Why was all of this necessary? Are we talking about the good old United States of America?

“At a time when the EU looks to be on the brink of a break-up, the Nobel Committee has decided to remind people that the Union emerged from the Second World War and has successfully prevented new conflicts, especially between Germany and France over the last 60 years. ‘Today, war between Germany and France is unthinkable,’” noted the Nobel committee chairman (Telegraph, October 12, 2012).

Each day as I peruse the obituaries in our statewide newspaper, I am struck by the number of deaths of World War II veterans. These men are now in their eighties and nineties, so it is not unusual that they are reaching the end of their lives, but what is remarkable is how many lives were touched in that awful conflict. It was the “greatest generation,” as referred to by author and commentator Tom Brokaw in his book by that title. Each of these veterans has stories to tell of their experiences and of the impact the war had on their lives and the lives of their loved ones.