Sacrifices
One of my favorite shows has coined yet another thought provoking line. In the West Wing last week, the statement was made that the president needed to show the country he was willing to sacrifice his child for the country.
Let me give you the background in case you don’t watch it. At the end of last season, the president’s daughter was kidnapped by some rather “low-rent” terrorists. He stepped down using the 25th Amendment giving the top person of the opposing party the presidency. At the beginning of this season, he’s attacked for giving up the presidency. Thus the statement I paraphrased above.
This got me thinking. Should I expect my president be willing to sacrifice his (or her) children? Another comment made by another character in the show that he’d “drop napalm on Yellowstone” to get his kids back who had just been born. I can relate to that. I’ve said, mess with my kids, inflict any kind of injury on my child and you would not be safe on this planet. Would I let out prisoners or carpet bomb a city about it? I don’t know for sure about the bombing part, but I don’t think it would take me long to open the cell and turn on the trigger.
So, can I expect a man or woman elected to run this country should be callous and unfeeling enough that they would be willing to allow their flesh and blood to die when I wouldn’t be able to do that myself? Granted, I’m not running for president, but should that really be a job requirement?
In the past, I’ve talked about the pompousness of corporations to expect this of their employees. Put this company who will forget about you in a matter of weeks after you’re gone ahead of the children who will live their lives with you in their heart. This isn’t quite the same level, but a similar situation. I rail against corporations expecting this of me, do I have the right to expect it of my president?
In my opinion, I think the president should be willing to sacrifice his political career for the country not his children. Sometimes I wonder which is more important to the politicians of today – their career or their family. Personally, I think that’s a horrible statement of what this society has allowed to happen in both the political and corporate worlds.
