Occasionally I just walk between the stacks in a library rather than ordering a book online. The most recent book that jumped out at me was The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. On August 4, 1944, Anne Frank and her family were found in the Annex. They were placed in the last transport to leave Camp Westerbork for the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Fortunately for the world, Anne’s diary and papers were saved, but how much richer the world would have been had Anne’s life been spared.

All wars come at great cost to lives, as well as war’s effects on every aspect of society—education, economy, research, environment, and all else. It’s hard to imagine what would have been had Anne lived. How many other books would have enriched our lives? This senseless loss of her life continues to be multiplied by the thousands in every war. We can’t imagine the heights to which our world would have come had everyone lived to his or her potential.

Thank you to those readers who have worked to save one more life through your monetary donations to end disease, to build wells, to repair homes, to support Doctors Without Borders, to contribute to Heifer International, and much more, because you believe in “what could have been.”