Monday will be the 68th anniversary of Dec. 7, 1941, a day of infamy as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it, a day that changed not only my life, but also the lives of all Americans then living. The generations that followed my generation know little about this war, and most could care less about it. But it was real, and it changed America.

This will be my 11th column on Pearl Harbor. I write each year about Pearl Harbor, and the beginning of World War II, a war that killed or maimed over 50 million people worldwide, because I lived through that war, not as a soldier, but as a teenager in high school, who was prepared to serve my country in that war, even give my life if necessary, to protect the precious freedoms that America had stood for - for 155 years.

My generation said World War II was the war to end all wars, and that peace would prevail, yet today, 68 years later, war continues, and people's lives and homes are continually being destroyed. Peace is still elusive. Man's inhumanity to man continues.

The United Nations, organized to bring peace to a war-shattered world, created Israel as a homeland for the world's displaced Jews and initiated a war that is still looking for a solution. This is the war of terrorism that affects this generation's lives today, like at Fort Hood just this year.

The "cold war" against communism followed World War II, a war that spawned the Korean War, the war that changed my life forever. It took me off the farm to serve my country. I never returned to the farm.

Vietnam followed. More millions suffered. But this was the war that also brought serious internal conflict to America's homeland, a conflict that has yet to heal as witnessed by the recent election and this new administrations determination to radically "change" America.

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 the "cold war" thawed a little. But another war, Desert Storm, soon followed, which was followed by the Iraqi war, and now the "world war" on terrorism and the radical Islamic challenge to America's freedoms deeply embedded in America's foundational documents by the founders.

People of all ages have asked "why war?" A reasonable question for reasonable people to ask, but is there an answer? I believe it is about our personal freedoms and the desire of the elite to control the masses, those few who think they "know better the needs and dreams of the masses then the people themselves." Others answer this question by suggesting that today's wars are only a continuation of that "war in heaven" (Rev. 12) where "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not ... And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels [a third part of the stars of heaven (vs 4)] were cast out with him."

Is Satan the source of our wars? Moses thought so. He recorded "Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." Satan's role: to oppose peace. A definitive role!

That war for the control of the minds of mankind continues today. Believers believe the consummation of this war will be the battle of Armageddon. In the Library of Congress we can read about the "wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; and the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place." That day seems to be here and peace still remains elusive.

In 1776 most of the world's population lived under tyrannical kings - no freedoms as we know them today. America's founders stirred up freedom in mankind's breast. Personal freedoms took root in American soil and they became the beacon of hope to the world's oppressed and enslaved. World War II did not bring peace but it showed the determination of a free people to fight for their freedoms. Every generation must wage its own war for freedom - no generations are exempt. Wars continue while people continue to pray for peace.

Today, there is a new national cemetery here in Cherokee, on the beautiful banks of the Etowah River that honors all veterans who have, or will serve their nation to preserve its precious freedoms - for all Americans.

Donald Conkey, a retired agricultural economist, lives in Woodstock.