Every time I walk past the Gold Star Hall in the Memorial Union, I am told a half-truth in words that are hard to ignore.

Carved into the wall are the words of poet, John Drinkwater: “For thee they died. Master and maker, God of right; the soldier dead are at thy gate; who kept the spears of honor bright; and freedom’s house inviolate.”

This Memorial Day, America honored men and women who fought and died in wars.

Those who have died in wars are brave, but the picture of war that many Americans see is incomplete. It only tells half the story of those fatal days.

Over time, this built up inside me — and inside all of us — an image of war that left out crucial elements of the story of every war.

It left out thousands of children who would be told falsely, “Daddy will be home soon.”

It left out the stories of people like Sherri Perales who go to bed every day with nightmares of bloodied Iraqi children.

A study done by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research conducted in 2003 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July, 2004 found that about 17 percent of returning Iraq veterans showed symptoms of depression or Post Traumatic Stress disorder.

“The battle field is a great place for liars,” Stonewall Jackson once said after he viewed the aftermath of a battle in the American Civil War.

Stonewall Jackson was right; in the midst of the emotions of death, the greatest lies are told.

The history of wars, as depicted in society in America, tells us the same lie over and over again. It depicts war as a glorious thing to be honored.

The belief in war as a way of resolving conflicts has become so ubiquitous.

Thus in situations — such as Sept. 11 — where American lives have been lost, it has become culturally unacceptable to not respond with war.

Anyone who suggests peaceful alternatives to dealing with such conflicts is said to be out of touch with reality.

We have found a way to make peace with a demon of terror. The thought of 15,000 Iraqi children dying doesn’t haunt us — like it should.

The thought of hundreds of thousands of children being displaced from their homes, their parents or their countries doesn’t cause nightmarish concerns in us — like it should.

We have learned to live with war and accept it, and yet we wonder how terror has become such a big part of modern life.

With Iran and North Korea developing their nuclear programs and with terrorist attacks increasing around the world, terror could one day become a daily phenomenon.

The same lie will be repeated over and over again. In the future, fools will say that we now live in a more dangerous world and we need to fight even more to preserve our lives.

Yes, we will live in a more dangerous world — but not because we didn’t fight enough wars. It will be because we ignored the role of environmental factors such as poverty and lack of education in causing things such as crime and terrorism.

Anyone who believes war is a glorious thing is in a psychological prison, and he or she can’t see very far through the prison bars.

This short-sightedness on issues such as terrorism leads him or her to see war as the first and only option.

Tomorrow, when I walk past the Gold Star Hall, I will also think about the millions of lives that have been affected negatively by war.

That way, I don’t shut the door on love for my neighbors, and toss the keys of understanding and sympathy away.

I don’t want my mind to be trapped within prison bars of selfishness and lack of emotions for dead civilians. That will indeed be a true loss of freedom.