Repeating myself over and over is redundent. So here it is again.

I hate to repeat myself but once again this subject keeps dogging the political arena. And the subject is the price of gasoline at the pump. Here is a candid Q and A with Chevron’s CEO taken from today’s USA Today:

“Chevron CEO sees high oil demand, thin spare capacity By One on One, with Maria Bartiromo Oil prices have been among the few wild cards in this economic recovery. With gasoline at high levels, economists worry that any further rise in prices could zap people's disposable income and put a crimp in the economic recovery just as it is gaining traction. I caught up with one of the leading CEOs in the oil business. Chevron's John Watson says the reasons prices are high are not likely to go away anytime soon. Our interview follows, edited for clarity and length. Q: Gas prices have been rising, following the price of oil. What's causing high oil prices? A: About 75% of the price of gas is really dictated by crude oil. At the heart of the issue is increasing demand over a period of many years around the world. World crude oil consumption now is close to 90 million barrels a day. Most of the growth in demand is coming from China and the developing world. On top of that, we're seeing little spare capacity, and we're seeing tensions and pressures, primarily in the Middle East…”

Read the entire article in today’s USA Today.

This subject keeps coming up because of the highly charged political season. Or should we call it the “Silly Season?” None the less it often comes down to blaming President Obama for high gasoline prices. Kind of like blaming Betty Crocker for the high cost of Twinkies. Twinkies or Oil, all go on to the world market and is bought by the highest bidder. However in the case of oil, there often is other countries out bidding America. Usually China, India, Japan, Europe and others.

So no matter how much we “Drill Baby Drill,” all oil goes to the global market. Even if we build a pipeline from Canada to the gulf, a man from China and India is at the other end ready to out bid America.

But you say a large part of that oil is drilled in America. Absolutely! However, all big oil companies are more loyal to their stockholders and will do anything to get maximum price on the world market. Ask any CEo. As mentioned in the USA Today article a global market and tension in the middle East drives the price at the pump. Not President Obama. The president has no influence over crude oil prices. Only OPEC and the oil producers.

If President Obama forced by law the big oil companies to keep domestically produced oil in America and sell at lower prices, he would be blasted by double barrels from the World Marketeers for inhibiting a free World market. So talk to your big oil CEo and ask them to lower prices. It would be like talking to the Great Wall of China. Drill baby drill is a bunch of hooey and all of President Obama’s detractors are engaged in truth bending and lies. Mit Romney being one of them. He and others will do or say anything to win the presidency.

This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. It’s a basic economic principle. Look this up for yourself. Read the above article. Do your own homework and find the truth.

We have the media milking machines on full blast.

Working Moms verses Stay at home moms? I really don’t think there is such an issue except in the press. Moms on Moms makes good tabloid. But anyway here is a headline from USA Today:

“Democrat's 'work' comment leaves everyone all worked up By Jackie Kucinich The presidential campaign exploded Thursday into a bitter debate over women's work, a day after a Democratic adviser made a dismissive remark about stay-at-home mom Ann Romney, wife of the GOP candidate Mitt Romney. Wednesday night…”
Read the entire story in today’s USA Today.

First of all it was not a Democrat’s statement. It was the sole opinion of Hillary Rosen who happens to be a Democrat. Ms. Rosen was not speaking for all Democrats. However I do understand what she was trying to say but that’s beside the point. Unfortunately the interpretation is in the ear of the beholder and can be construed in any biased fashion to work for or against any political cause. And in this case work against all Democrats. Even though she has since apologized to Ms Romney. The President dismissed the statement as misspoken and not part of the Democrat’s talking points. .

So Ms Rosen has issued her apology, then the president has refuted the statement as misguided, therefore Ms Romney should accept the withdrawal of the ill spoken statement. And I think she has.

However, the “Bomb sniffing” press and all the electronic media including talk radio will continue to hammer Ms. Rosen in to infinite and infamous shame. Only because it is meaty press. Something to create a high profile media circus. And as we all know, Media circus’s are what fuels Radio, TV, and papers advertisements. Sort of like pouring controversy gasoline on a great media fire. “Boys, watch it blaze while our ratings go up and up. “Bring it on!”

In the meantime leaving Ms Rosen being burned at the stake, Democrats with a black eye, and president Obama wishing only he could speak for most Democrats. And again, only to sell media hype and soap opera tabloid. None the less, the Media has struck again. Claimed another victim in the partisan wars. And the list of gaffs have been coming fast and furious. Remember Rick Perry? Earlier flip flopping Rick Romney? Remember Herman Cain? And the list seems endless.

All of this media circus is sort of like Roman Emperor Caesar and in this case the media. Caesar and the media watching the political gladiators kill off each other only for the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Such great sport. Finally the Media ratings and ad sells go up and all at the expense of folks with misstated pronouncements. Ms Rosen, rest in peace.

Mexican Hat Dance anyone?

What I like about living here in Santa Fe is it’s radio. Yes, it has progressive talk radio. Yes, it has conservative talk radio. It has all sports radio and all religious radio. None of which I really care for.

What I do like is Santa Fe’s New Mexico music radio. It is oh so New Mexico. Lively, snappy, and fun. And most importantly I don’t understand a single word or lyric they are singing. Yes! This is the positive aspect of New Mexico radio music. It’s like rhythmic La-la-la’s and tweeting trills. Percussive and with lots of uncomplicated drumming and Umpa-pas and boom ditty booms.
And again, I like this music because it doesn’t involve politics, sports, and religion. Uncomplicated, fun, and most entertaining. Ole Jose!

Either shop with your eyes or go to the car son!

For we East L A Okies, the springtime dress-up Easter fashion parade ritual began Saturday before Easter. The Easter slog officially started when we headed westward up Olympic Boulevard towards our shopping emporium of choice.

It was just a day of spring time fashion magic. Tawdry in full bloom with a rare blend of plaids and stripes. The latest fashionable phosphorescent colors. Okie mix and match. Oh so simple.

But anyway, driving away from our East L A home going all the way to Sears Roebucks is how it started. Yes, Sears the real people’s fashion couture located in East L A in the Boyle Heights district. My Mom, Dad, sisters, brother and myself all squeezed in to our gray 1950 Ford 4-door sedan and drove up Olympic Boulevard to the big white ten story Sears tower at Olympic and Soto street. The hollowed temple of Lay-A-Way. This was the shopping Mecca located just east of the often empty but mighty concrete L. A. river. Even though Sears was only about ten miles west up Olympic Boulevard from our little East Los Angeles adobe house, driving to Sears and back was an all morning and sometimes all day long marathon shopping event. Usually yielding very little for we Okie boys. Maybe yellow and blue suspenders. Or a pastel orange clip on tie. Resulting in our own kind of fashion statement. Okie!

Nonetheless, it possibly could be compared to today’s kids hanging out at the mall. But, not really. The difference was, our overly watchful Okie parents closely supervised our every move like hovering CIA drones. And I know this is hard to believe but we kids were hanging out without the benefit of cell phones and thumb tapping texting. However, what we kids did have, as a parent manipulator was theatrics and melodrama. Our quickly learned acting methods of whining and looking most sorrowful and deprived aided our wantonness. Brooding about with practiced grim faces. “You keep looking that way and your face will freeze and fall off.”

Once we finally arrived we always parked in the east parking lot and were greeted by the outdoor and lawnmower shop. Push type reel mowers, motor driven reel mowers, and motor driven rotary mowers. And enough yard gadgetry to make any Easter lawn happy. Plus there was an already assembled round above ground aluminum swimming pool filled and with floating beach balls atop the water. Gosh, how did they do that? And nearby colorful metal swing sets and portable aluminum outbuildings that also surrounded the pool. Enough outdoor stuff to make an Okie boy pause and think. Hmm.

For a better perspective of all these wondrous backyard accoutrements we got to climb seemingly a hundred steps. Steps up to the main Sears entrance. A pretty good work out to climb for sure.

Now, just inside the East door of Sears, were the men’s, women’s, and children’s shops. My sisters were just amazed with the splendid fashion choices. “Are you sure this isn’t the senior ladies department mom?” My mom would immediately take my two sisters and herself to find new dresses, hat, and shoes. Leaving my brother, dad and I roaming unconsciously through the store for endless hours. Looking and touching all of its alluring hardware and gadgetry. Now and then there would be a free live demonstration of a half horsepower garbage disposal. Demonstrations that would keep our fleeting attention for a half second or so. And it was always cool to watch the blowing vacuum cleaner suspend a beach ball endlessly in midair. “Wow! Just like on TV.” This search and destroy exploratory went on until my mom was finish with my sister’s Easter fashion selections. Maybe buying them each a new dress and Easter hat. More than likely, a new pair of glossy white or yellow patent leather shoes.

As for my brother and myself, my dad had no clue what to buy for we attention defecate Okie boys. We Okie gentlemen folk chose an alternative course of action instead.

So, the only thing we could possibly do to pass the time would be to wander aimlessly about the different appliance and hardware departments like nomadic mountain goats. Touching, poking, sniffing, dropping, and sometimes breaking. Put that down son!

At the outset of our mindless exploratory, we would slowly and deliberately pass the candy and nut counter. Watching and smelling the warm roasting nuts. Maybe the candy lady would have pity on our sorrowful expressions and toss out a peanut cluster or two. But the candy ladies were much smarter than we thought. They just ignored our stupid contorted Okie faces of woe.

None the less, we would just stand there in spilled scattered popcorn with expressions of want observing other parents and their kids pointing and choosing their roasted cashews and chocolate candy. How oh so lucky they were. And, how oh so unlucky my brother and I were. But Okie boys expect that. Just darn bad luck.

So we would just suck it in and move on. Real Okie men would gather up determination and wander off elsewhere. We would invariably wind up in the large appliance department observing the whirling of soap and bubble spraying already clean dishes and glasses while washing through a clear plastic front-loading door panel. Almost as good as watching color TV. “Wow! Does it really clean dishes dad? Don’t touch anything son.”

Next we might aimlessly browsed the automotive department and stared bewilderingly at car mufflers sawed in half. “Why would somebody cut that in half Pops?” Then there were moving engine see-through models. Dad, what would happen if we stuck a penny down in the cylinder? “Wow dad, look at all these car radios with all the buttons. Here is one that has FM and Am. Son, don’t touch that or I’ll haul you out to our car!”

Then the next department was the J C Higgins bicycle and sporting goods department. Complete with a life size manikin holding a J C Higgins 12-gage shotgun with hunting vest and matching orange cap. Gun Unloaded of course. Over behind the counter were the Red Rider bee-bee guns. “Can I shoot it dad?” Huh?
Don’t touch anything or I’ll drag you to the car by your ear son!”

Finally, to finish our usual tour, we walked down to the basement and looked at horse saddles and portable cement mixers. “Hmm. I wonder how this works? Do I pull this handle down?
Son, I told you not to touch anything. Would you want me to haul you out by the shirt collar to the car right now boy!”

So, after many hours of walking, looking, touching, and threatening we would finally end up back with our mom at the east door and she would already have bought me my Easter outfit. She would show me a pair of black socks or a cheesy looking yellow clip on dress ties. “How interesting?” All would be bought without my prior approval. Something I became accustom to.

“Are all you boys ready to go to the car, my mom would finally ask.” You boys? To the Car? “When do I shop for clothes?
Son! Stop your whining and head for the car now. You hear me? Shopping is over and we got what we got.”

Slowly fade to black while the Okie family walks out the Soto Street east door. Happy Easter and to all a good buy.
THE END.

Take me back to those bad old days. Here, take all my money.

How can I say this in a nice way? And I’m trying to be as non-partisan as possible but, our current economic and unemployment problems come from bad policy from the previous administration. And I will leave it up to you to discover what administration took over government in 2001.

Ignoring government banking and financial regulations is what got us into a horrific housing loan meltdown. Plus little regulation that took down some well known investment houses and energy corps. Remember Bare-Sterns and Lehman Brothers. And who can forget Enron Energy Corp. And how about that investment scammer guy Bernard Madoff? Just Wall Street at its worse. Freewheeling, under regulated, and working against the American can do spirit.

We Americans can’t let this happen again. Wall Street and big corporations want no restraint. Want no regulation. Want no government involvement. All are recipes for another meltdown and recession. Do we need another recession? Do we want our hard earned savings to slip away into the hands of big banks and big corporations? Leaving many of us in financial ruin? Is this what you want?

It will happen again if we take our attention off scamming practices brought to us by Wall Street, Big Banks, Big energy, or any other heavy handed corporation or lobbying groups.

I hate to point fingers but in general, the Republican party is the party of NO regulations. Leaving any government benefit or savings you may have at risk. Risk of total loss. And let me mention here, check this out for yourself. Read the reports. Read the newspaper accounts. Read the books. Study this for yourself. You yourself remember the bad years after 2001 and especially from 2007 to 2009. Tens of thousands losing their homes to foreclosure. Tens of thousands filing for bankruptcy. Job loss, no health care, no opportunity for a college education, businesses sending jobs overseas, manufacturing shutting down, and the list was endless. All because we took our eyes off big corporate interest scamming the American people. Just a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to the extreme rich. Plain and simple.

Don’t let this happen again. Start locally and vote out any incumbent congress man or woman who are working against your best interest. America will work for your advantage if some regulation is put in place to prevent scamming and stealing your life savings. Pay attention. Read the facts. Ask hard questions. Then vote for the person that will best serve your community. God Bless America.

What was once ours is now theirs.

The very rich say they worked hard to achieve their wealth. And don’t owe anything to the poor or middle class. But deserve a tax break for all the hard work. Perhaps so but the money they now posses use to be ours. We invested it in high risk ventures and lost it to the rich. So, it is really our money. Not the rich.

Only had we read the fine print. Only if we had not fallen for promises of getting rich ourselves. All hype. All baloney. Our pain. The rich’s gain. It’s as simple as that.

Advantage the Rich. Disadvantage the middle class. A middle class shrinking as we speak.

But as you can see, the wealth of America has changed hands. Wealth no longer in the hands of the middle class but in the pockets of the rich. Call it class warfare or whatever. None the less we have be taken to the cleaners by people who have better attorneys and accountants. People who know how to change the rules to their advantage.

So, it was just a high end crap shoot. They won. We lost.

Never the less, it all use to be our money. Money taken by the privatization of retirement. No longer do companies provide matching funds for the retired. It has all been turned over to investment bankers and their Wall Street con games.

Even our savings accounts have been compromised. Extremely low interest rates have driven our hard earned money out of the banks and into the hands of the ruthless fund managers. Money once ours. All done by changing the rules in Congress.

And as a result, Money now belonging to the hard working scheming money managers and fund bankers. Zip, pop, zing! Money taken by manipulating the laws and funneled into tight and secured bank accounts of the very rich. Money gone. Gone to Wall Street. Our hard earned cash. Now belonging to someone else in an offshore bank.

Let me repeat one more time. All this wealth and money once belonged to we the people. Now belongs to the the rich. Should we congratulate them on work well done? I don’t think so. We should tax the heck out of them. Why? Because it’s our money. Tax and spend. That’s the way we can win.

Trickle down only works for your parched lawn.

Ladies and gentlemen, the theory behind cutting taxes for the wealthy is it should produce jobs. The only problem is the jobs are in China and India. Certainly a long commute for most Americans. However, if any Americans happen to make it to China or India they will quickly discover the wages weren’t worth the trouble getting there. Wages over there are one sixth to one twentieth of what most Americans expect. Far below the American minimum wage. Certainly far below the average salary of the average CEO.

So, do we call this progress? Is this what you get from “Trickle Down?” It may seem more like a joke or hopefully a mistake. Is it?

No. The theory of cutting taxes for the rich and producing new jobs is a PR hoax. A joke on America. More like a lie.

So why is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives proposing yet another deficit producing tax cut for the extreme rich? Then on top of that the recalcitrant Republicans are proposing cutting benefits to the poor and middle class. Cutting Medicaid and Medicare. Cutting food stamps. Cutting Head Start programs. Things that help the middle class and the working poor get the health care, food, and education they very much need. Helping the disadvantaged get out of poverty and move ahead in their lives. And helping the retired seniors stay afloat financially.

So it’s left up the voters. You and me. Do we want more deficit causing tax cuts or do we need to pay a little more for our future? It’s your choice.

It is amazing to me how many well intended Republicans vote against their own interest. Continuing to send the same regressive politicians back to Washington. Reversing what is needed in America. Doing more damage to the economy and wrecking most citizens future. All brought on my misinformation by politicians bought and paid for by the Rich.

So, please Mr. and Mrs. America, vote smart not party. Vote for your own future. It really is not politics but voting for the future of our children and grandchildren. Please turn down this regressive and damaging budget proposed by the Republican Leadership. It’s all about our future. Not the politicians.

You could either mow it down or hose it off.

If three wise men rode pass my house atop their camels one spring morn, they would completely agree with me about lawns. They certainly would agree that maintaining a lawn of Bermuda grass is just pointless ‘make work.’ Doing something for no discernable or pragmatic reason. If you need something out front to show your neighbors, build a quarter scale railroad complete with trestles and waterfalls instead.

So, after years and years mowing and pondering lawn care, I have concluded that agonizing and trundling over one’s Lawn Has no real economic or intrinsic value. Can’t sell it. Can’t eat it. But it does support a huge power equipment industry.

Lawn mowing and lawn care is the engine that drives a vast lawnmower manufacturing and marketing organizations. Selling expensive (and often needing expensive repair as well) riding and walking lawnmowers. And that’s not all.

Weekend lawn piddling and fretting give lawn chemical companies reason to sell expensive chemical fertilizers and toxic herbicides. Chemicals brewed up to ‘green-up’ a square of grass in the front yard or back. Why? What’s the purpose? But is all this good reason to coddle a lawn? Would the Wise men do this huh?

Ladies and gentlemen, if lawns were to suddenly evaporate and no homeowner needed to maintain a lawn then possibly all these peripheral mow-happy and expensive equipment businesses could move away. Then adult men would have to find something else to occupy their extra time. Possibly save tons of money and watch more weekend sports. Maybe even talk to one’s kids or wife.

Come on. Think about it. How did all this ‘Make work lawnary’ get started? Where did the notion of lawns come from? Answer. It’s just a lawn growing and mowing cartel. A small consortium of sadistic manipulating power hungry men perpetrating a lawn mowing conspiracy. I’m almost sure someone first invented the lawn mower. Then needed something clever to do with it. Thus came the lawn. Lawns need mowing. Don’t they? “Either get yourself and lawn and mower or we will come and take your kids.”

So as a result of the lawn mowing racketeers, Lawn mowing and all its residual accoutrements are promoted as “great fun or else.” Yeah right. To my way of thinking, lawns and its endless mowing-trimming-edging-raking-blowing-bagging is more like a undeniable terminal disease or death sentence. So, if you don’t mow in lockstep with your neighbors, consequences will surely follow. The mowing Mafia(AKA your neighbors) will surround your house and cast profane statements towards your front porch if you refuse to comply.

Now, the secondary profit center is the pharmaceutical and Allergy industry. Any given Saturday morning a billion tons of Bermuda grass particles waft in the air. Thus creating the biggest sneezing season of the year. Sending adults and children to Allergist and drug stores. Seeking treatment for itchy eyes, running noses, and skin rashes. A horrible condition to be in. And this is to not mention the need for expensive Kleenex, goggles, and surgical masks. Plus skin ointments and mosquito sprays. And, if all these conditions didn’t exist, what would drug stores and doctors do? What would the Wise men say to do?

Get rid of your lawn. Get rid of the expense. Get rid of the side effects and allergies. All brought on by maintaining a freaking useless bothersome lawn. Lawns? Who needs them? Pave your front yard over with green concrete and just admire or snicker at your neighbor as he walks endless miles over his lawn. Perhaps you can take up tennis or golf instead. Do the three Wise Men play golf?

There he goes again. Blowing hard.

What is Mit Romney talking about? Does he not read the newspapers? Is he not watching CNBC? Has Mit been hiding away in Kat Man Do again?

The economy is getting better much to Mit’s wanting to trash the economic news of the upswing. Sure it could be better but it’s on its way. It’s there! In the papers! On CNBC!

Employment going up. More cars coming from America. More cars being exported. I know. I read it in USA Today. It’s in black and white print. Available at most newsstands. Papers baring witness to an improving economy.

Unemployment is going down. Many people are going back to work. Read it! It’s there at your finger tips. Plain and simple. Things are getting better.

However, Mit Romney’s definition of getting better includes more tax cuts for the rich. Less and less benefits for the middle class and the working poor. Mit wants to rid America of Social Security and Medicare. Mit wants to spend less and less money on education. Less and less money on health care. It is so plain and simple that Mit Romney wants to wreck the middle class again with more tax cuts for the very wealthy and send jobs overseas. It’s there! In the newspapers! Mit is for the most part anti-American progress. Anti-small business. And for sure, anti-made in America.

Mit Romney wants to run America like Goldman Sachs. Just give me all your money and we’ll get back with you. Shutting down businesses to “save money.” More like put more money in the bank accounts of the filthy rich. Good luck Mr. and Mrs. Middle America is what Mit is saying.

So what does Mit and his Wall Street cronies don’t understand. America wants progress and prosperity. Not bankruptcy. Bankruptcy like George W Bush left us with.

Mit Romney wants to return to the bad years after September 11. Many tax cuts for the rich, two huge costly and unpaid for wars. A collapsed housing market. And a crashed economy.

Mit!! America does not want your brand of class divide. The 99-percent wants you and your buds to pay up. Share your enormous profits with those who have nothing. The haves need to help the have nots. It’s the Golden Rule put into action. Do it! I know you will eventually like it. Helping others to help themselves.

But in the mean time shut up and help us out. Get your hands dirty. Pitch in and let’s work together. Here! Read the Wall Street Journal and read the Bloomberg News. Things are getting better. Obama’s policies are working. God bless Obama and America.

Do we really need to be there? Why?

A son heads off to war. By David Freed, David Freed is a screenwriter and former Times reporter. who covered Operation Desert Storm. His first novel, "Flat Spin," is due out. in May.. A few days ago, on a tranquil spring afternoon, I hugged my only son, holding back tears because he hates sappy stuff like that, and watched him go off to war. With luck, we'll be together again around Christmas. I had hoped that I might see him sooner, but the mid-tour leaves that he and his soldiers had been promised got canceled amid Pentagon budget cutbacks. My sorrow was tempered by great pride as we traded goodbyes. He is a born leader. During recess, he was always the kid who organized the games. In high school, he played back-up quarterback. Now, at 25, he is a powerfully built, self-assured infantry first lieutenant who has breezed through some of the Army's most rigorous training, including Airborne and Air Assault schools. Don't worry," he tells me. I'll be fine. I want so much to believe him. Yet given the vagaries of modern combat, I know that my son's rank and extensive preparation offer no guarantee of his safety in Afghanistan or wherever else he may end up. He volunteered for this, I tell myself. This is what he's long wanted to do despite my efforts to persuade him otherwise. And it is his life. None of that, however, assuages my concern for his well-being -- nor, for that matter, my disdain for those who speak blithely of America's need to prolong a costly and questionable approach to foreign policy without understanding the true impact on the warriors and their families, who shoulder the weight of that policy. I thought about that when the story broke of Robert Bales, the Army staff sergeant accused of horrifically gunning down 17 civilians in Afghanistan. Bales has served under two commanders in chief without combat experience, and the vast majority of members of Congress who funded the two wars to which Bales was sent have themselves never heard a shot fired in war. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, routinely vows that if elected, he will beef up defense spending so that "we" can continue to project freedom and democracy abroad. We? I am irked by his use of the collective pronoun, considering that neither he nor any of his five sons have ever been in the military. Bales was on his fourth overseas deployment when he purportedly went on a homicidal rampage. No one at this point can say definitively to what extent, if any, his alleged actions were influenced by his combat record. But there is no denying reports that he was dismayed at having to go to Afghanistan after he'd already done three tours in Iraq. Likewise, there is no denying the reason why tens of thousands of other soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen have had to go back again and again: because there simply are not enough of them to sustain the ambitions of tough-talking politicians, Republican and Democrat, who seem only too happy to pick fights and then let other people's kids throw the punches. Would upping defense spending, as Romney proposes, reduce the frequency of multiple deployments? Perhaps. But heaving more money at the problem misses the point. It's not just about how many people serve. It's about who serves. And those who are serving in America's all-volunteer military are typically not the children of the politicians who occupy the national stage. About 1 in 5 current members of Congress is a veteran, but less than 1% of their offspring are. There are some notable exceptions, of course. One of John McCain's sons was a Marine in Iraq. Vice President Joe Biden's son, Bo, put in a stint as an Army lawyer in Baghdad. Those who enlist today, though, are more likely to hail from a hardscrabble strata of society far distant from the halls of power. Politicians can talk all they want about how gut-wrenching it is for them to write letters of condolences, or attend memorial services for the fallen, but they really have no idea what it's like to have a child or spouse die in battle, or to live with the lurking dread that they might. Certainly those who join the military today know what they're getting into -- or should. Nobody's twisting their arms. Some, including my solidly middle-class son, are motivated to join for patriotic reasons, or because they, like him, naively believe that getting shot at sounds like grand adventure. But I suspect that most enlistees, including Robert Bales, sign up also because getting shot at it means a steady paycheck in a down economy. The sons of Mitt Romney don't have such concerns. Regardless of their patriotism, they each had many options beyond the military, thanks in no small measure to family money. The oldest helps run a private-equity firm. The youngest develops real estate in San Diego. Two other of Romney's sons also work in property development or finance. The fifth is a physician. They often appear en masse at photo opportunities celebrating Dad's latest primary victory. Meanwhile, far from public view, other bands of brothers and sisters -- soon to include my son -- hunker down in faraway lands, sweating out mortar barrages and hoping not to set off improvised explosive devices. I remind myself that statistics are on my side: Hundreds of thousands of other parents have gone through the emotional hell that my wife and I now face, and most of their kids came back OK. Still, I'm not sure how I'll cope in the coming months. Will my heart race every time I hear a car stop outside the house, worrying that it has brought an Army casualty notification team? Should I try to keep abreast of developments overseas, worrying myself sick? Or should I purposely avoid the news in this paper and on TV, pretending all is well, that my son is OK, even if days have passed without a word from him? One thing, though, I do know: My fears are something that neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama -- nor most of this nation's leaders -- can ever fully comprehend.