Thursday, May 20, 2004
From one dad to another....
In this week's Boston Globe , David F. D'Alessandro (CEO of John Hancock Financial Services)writes about the realites of his child and George W Bush's children not having to fight the war in Iraq "...because they don't want to, they don't have to and George W and I won't let them."
The final paragraph of D'Alessandro's eloquent piece sums up his point so beautifully:
That's why the president is able to press on: All he has at risk personally is his presidency, not his children. That's why I am not organizing protests and why the rest of us are not outraged at every turn. This war has no personal consequences for most of us who as '60s peaceniks changed the world. Shame on us, both of us -- all of us.
This is a very interesting point. This hasn't reached the threshold of Vietnam yet because we haven't really felt the pain of the loss the same way. There hasn't been a draft. These are the volunteer military or those who chose the military for their way of life. Are the lives of these who've died so much less because they're not conscripted? Would it change things if the children of prominent or wealthy citizens had to give their lives?
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The final paragraph of D'Alessandro's eloquent piece sums up his point so beautifully:
That's why the president is able to press on: All he has at risk personally is his presidency, not his children. That's why I am not organizing protests and why the rest of us are not outraged at every turn. This war has no personal consequences for most of us who as '60s peaceniks changed the world. Shame on us, both of us -- all of us.
This is a very interesting point. This hasn't reached the threshold of Vietnam yet because we haven't really felt the pain of the loss the same way. There hasn't been a draft. These are the volunteer military or those who chose the military for their way of life. Are the lives of these who've died so much less because they're not conscripted? Would it change things if the children of prominent or wealthy citizens had to give their lives?
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