William Sloane Coffin once wrote: "We have a democracy not based on the proven goodness of the people, but on the proven evils of dictators." As this nation pauses to remember those who have sacrificed their lives in war, we need to take stock of this reality - evil is still with us and must be resisted. While I am not sure that we need to keep troops in more than 70 nations as is our current policy, we do need to maintain an eternal vigilance against our propensity to the dark side of our human natures.

Evil must be fought, but in so doing, may we remember the insight of St. Augustine, "Never fight evil as if it were something that arose totally outside of yourself'.  Humbling...and cause for self-reflection.