Walking by the Boone County Courthouse this gray and rainy morning, I saw the World War I memorial. It reads:

IN MEMORY OF BOONE COUNTY BOYS WHO
LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE WORLD WAR

If they were making a war memorial today, the only words that would be the same perhaps would be "In Memory" and "Boone County." Certainly today the inscription wouldn't connote such senseless tragedy and despair - children's lives ... lost.