Don’t feel guilty because you enjoyed the holidays watching an array of playoffs and bowl games as though Iraq were on another planet. The so-called greatest generation listened to championship and bowl games even though a much larger war raged and everyone having a volatile good time had husbands, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons in the service. The big exception, of course, was that radio commercials always reminded the listeners to continue buying War Bonds and Stamps and often games were interrupted by war bulletins.

Obviously it was a different time and, though FDR encouraged the continuance of sports, fans were reminded to drop off their cans of waste fat, canned goods for the displaced, and discarded pots and pans at the admission gate for the war effort. And because practically everything was rationed, he did not inspire them to shop, but rather to work extra shifts in the war plants, and the children were encouraged to buy war stamps, as did the high school students who were continually reminded of the war as the list of graduates in the service — and those who quit to enlist — leaped geometrically on the walls of the entries. Tragically there were far too many names on the lists with gold stars as there were in the windows of homes.

Again, don’t feel guilty for these are different times in which pesky little wars to flex the muscle of a superpower with professional fighters, who are not deterred by a citizen’s army, are now the norm. However, I think it would be nice to reflect on the forgotten troops in Afghanistan, don’t you think?