Strength of Character and A Sense of Duty

Greg Mankiw has posted a link to a Boston Globe article written by an MIT faculty spouse bemoaning the difficulties of their mate's taking a position in Washington in the new Administration. As I read this I thought of a close friend who was just posted to Iraq, she being a senior Naval Officer with two children, no bemoaning, nor pain, with just my advice from having been in that type of situation generations ago, "watch your back, don't sit near a window, and look for shadows" and yes also one more thing, no purple ribbons if you can. As we have hundreds of thousand of men and women going daily into harm's way, the self-centered bemoaning of a faculty spouse of only seeing their mate on a weekend is incredulous. Then I recalled, this was Cambridge, this was the current Administration, this was the way the left responds to a call to duty. The spouse should be thankful that the only flak will be from press releases and not incoming mortars. I am thankful my father, my uncles, my great-uncles did not bemoan being home on weekends with the family. They did return with a few Distinguished Service Crosses and a few purple ribbons. For that we should all be thankful. I am. Everyday!