I was born very close to the 38th parallel. Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, right in the middle of the Korean peninsula. There's not a lot going on in that county--some small towns, a couple of museums--but one of the big sites is a Korean War battlefield.

American soldiers referred to it as the Punch Bowl, because it's a big round valley. In Korea, it's the Haesan Basin. For three weeks in the fall of 1951, a group of Marines from both the US and South Korea fought against several divisions of the North Korean military.

Hundreds of young men died there. I wonder every year if I had grandfathers or great-uncles who fought in that battle alongside American troops.

I had a regular library patron who was a Korean War vet. I thanked him once for his service. Turned out he was stationed down near Busan, on the opposite end of the country. He made friends with the kids there and he never knew how they fared after the war.

Brought tears to his eyes thinking about it.

In a perfect world, war would not exist. There would be peace between the nations and we wouldn't send thousands of people to die or come back with physical and emotional scars. I think that we can hate war and still honor the men and women who've died fighting in war.

I think we can honor them and still recognize that in a lot of ways our country glamorizes military power and violence.

My brother's a pretty high-ranking officer in the army. I'm proud of him and what he's accomplished. But I also recognize that serving has changed him; he's seen and done things he won't talk about.

This has been kind of a rambly thread, but all to say I hope for a day when there's peace, and I hope for a day when our troops and their families can have peace as well.