I ran across an article about the "victory" gardens during both World War I and World War II. With contaminated food from distant sources and the benefits of local agriculture, I thought about urging everyone to have a "victory" garden, whether large or small.

Having a "victory" garden is a good idea. It is a family activity that is not eating in the car in traffic with other families in their cars, in the same traffic, going to a family activity.

You also have the ultimate assurance of the cleanliness of the food you produce. Plus, it supports our local merchants who sell the plants, hoes, rakes, shovels, etc.

For all of its benefits, there is another reason why I wanted to write about "victory" gardens.

They were popular when the United States was at war and all of its people with it. That is everyone, from the child who gathered eggs, to the parents who planted the garden, to the workers in the factories, to those actually in the military, were at war.

And they all remained at war until the war was over. But wars are now left to the "professionals," a competing item on the evening news. Just another item in the national budget. Write out a check for your part of the war effort. Applaud appropriately at civic events.

Avoiding the direct costs or reminders of war, we don’t hold our elected officials responsible for them.

Maybe having a "victory" garden today will remind us to hold those officials responsible tomorrow — and to avoid any future wars, unless we are all prepared to go to war.