Funny how you can read two articles back to back and one allows for a warm and prideful feeling while the other stirs a bit of anger and frustration.

Such was the case this morning as I first enjoyed this story from the Examiner.

We’re fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and debating them in Washington. Yesterday my oldest son left to join the Army.

In our circle of friends, it’s been the topic of lots of discussion and no small amount of criticism. This group is part of the information elite: people who live in coastal enclaves and get paid to move information around. They’re well-educated and well-traveled, have high incomes and typically view themselves as cosmopolitan in outlook.

Our kids are supposed to go to East Coast colleges and then to graduate or professional school, not join the military as enlisted men. In this circle, I count only one other family whose son went into the military. That’s two children out of maybe 50 or 60 families.

Reagrdless of the authors politics, anything which speaks to a parents fears for their child, moves the reader beyond disagreement. You tend to ignore the ” political statements” the writer incorporates and remember this:

Being a parent seems to be a series of those moments, of watching your children pulling away and stepping out into a wider and wider world of responsibility and risk. And after yesterday, my son will be in the widest and riskiest world there is.

I fed him and paid his tuition. He’s taken those materials, and now the man he’s used them to become has set out to navigate that wide, risky world. I watched his back again as he walked down our driveway last night.

HT: Lorie Byrd

Unfortunately, I moved immediately from Mr. Danzinger’s piece to one published in “The Recorder.”

The opinions of Ryan Yeomans move beyond critical thinking and thought provoking material to nothing more than a question in my mind of his understanding of world events and the serious threats we face today.

As of late, if you were to bring up the president in a discussion you would find that many Americans disapprove of the decisions he has made. At the same time, Osama bin Laden presents many good arguments against the president and many of his reasons for disapproving of Bush are similar to those of anti-Bush Americans. Would it be wrong to assume that there is some kind of connection between feelings of the American people and those of Osama bin Laden? As I would love to make this connection, I ultimately cannot because of the actions of our president. If I were to say I agree with bin Laden, that would mean that I agree with a terrorist; under the Patriot Act, I could be labeled a potential terrorist and my phone could be tapped, and every move I make could be watched and analyzed.

In finding myself in this predicament, I questioned myself as to who the lesser evil actually is. I ask, “Who has done more damage to the lives of the American people?” Personally, I worry more about the next bad decision Bush is going to make than I worry about a potential Osama bin Laden organized terrorist attack.

I originally said this moved me to anger but in re-reading, I almost feel sorry for the author. There is a sense of BDS here which has moved him beyond reality if he is more frightened of his own government than he is of the capabilities of those who would kill him in an instant.

Fortunately there are those like Mr. Danzinger’s son and many, many others willing to take on the real enemy to preserve Mr. Yeoman’s right to express his views.

HT: Drudge