A commentary by a Saanich resident.

I thought I was smart enough to think that I was lucky to grow up in a period of history where the world had learned its lessons about greed, human rights and the value of world peace and cooperation.

It turns out I was woefully wrong.

I grew up listening to my dad talk about his early life when he was a young Royal Air Force bomber pilot, fighting against global terror and tyranny when an angry racist sociopath with weird hair convinced an entire people that they were the master race, and that he wanted to rule the world.

For those of you who are not history buffs, that would be the Second World War and Adolf Hitler.

My dad was quick to tell me how he and the majority of the world learned the lessons of the past and how he grew up in the aftermath of the First World War.

He talked about how disappointed people of his generation were in the generation before him, because the world hadn’t learned its lesson.

As a result, the Second World War broke out when he was just barely old enough to fight.

But fight........

© Times Colonist