Letter: Rich, powerful are excused from sacrifice, duty

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

President Bush has taken our brave young people and sent them to Iraq to fight and die, and has given many of them back to us in body bags, as he did with Casey Sheehan. When his mother expressed her grief and asked for an audience with President Bush in an attempt to understand and accept that her son died in the highest service to the nation, and that there was some purpose and justification for his death, the president refused to meet with her.

It is obvious that Bush has no sympathy for their sacrifice and the grief that only a parent can know when a violent death snatches a child from them in the peak years of their young lives.

Several months ago President Bush went on television to encourage parents to convince their children to volunteer for military service, saying that they would be volunteering for the highest service that any American can perform in the service of his/her country. I would like to express my concern that President Bush has not been able to encourage his twin daughters to enlist in this most noble act that any young person can do in offering his/her life in the defense of the United States.

Are the children of the Bush family and the children of members of Congress more valuable or more worthy to live out their lives without ever putting themselves in harm's way? Are the rich and powerful excused from their patriotic duty? Would the death or injury of these young people be more significant and a greater loss to the nation than the death of Casey Sheehan?

DON MCDONALD