In mid-1944 Webster County was in the middle of its Sixth War Bond sales campaign. I have not seen issues predating 1943, so I can't comment on that time period, but the 1943 and 1944 bond sales in Webster County had quotas of over $300,000.00 and all quotas were either met or exceeded. This astonished me because Webster was not a wealthy county and most residents were small farmers with large families.

I began to ask myself, were our ancestors more patriotic than we are today? Could today's families tolerate the sustained sacrifices that were required during World War II? If it became necessary for our government to ration gasoline and tires, could today's society still function? If our kids were told they couldn't have ice cream and bubble gum and new bicycles because of the war effort, how would they react? If we were asked again and again to dig deeper into our savings to purchase war bonds, would we do it? If our beloved fathers, husbands and sons were taken from us and sent to faraway places and put in harms way, could we carry on?

I don't know the answers but I think it would be a good idea for us to ask ourselves these questions from time to time. Veteran's Day would be an ideal time to do so. At the same time we honor those who sacrificed so we could live in freedom, let's ask ourselves if we would be able to do the same. If they were alive today, could we measure up to their scrutiny?

If the answer is "no", maybe we need to step back and re-examine our priorities. For starters, it might be a good idea to reread Father O'Brien's commentary above.

Carole Palmer
Lexington KY
Veterans Day 1999