When our children pick dangerous jobs

Anne Morse elegantly points to the fact that Cindy Sheehan's resistance to her son's military career, while a normal feeling for all mothers, cannot be elevated to a sacrosanct view in a healthy society:

If it were up to mothers, no son or daughter would ever volunteer for military service. We don't like seeing our children do dangerous things, whether it's leaping from the top of jungle gyms or volunteering for rescue missions in Iraq, as Casey Sheehan did. But if mothers really could pick their children's careers, what kind of a world would we have? We would wake up one morning to discover that we had no more soldiers, policemen or firemen, no freedom fighters, no prison guards or life guards. We would find ourselves in a world in which the strong preyed upon the weak, a world in which millions would be abandoned to the tender mercies of death squads and serial killers, to those who rape and torture, exploit and enslave. What a terrible world it would be. *** Casey Sheehan was not the first to die performing these tasks, nor will he be the last. Next month we will recall once again the terrible events that launched the war against Islamofascist extremism. On recently released audio records of that day we hear the desperate cries for help, and of the valiant efforts to save the victims. A commitment to their callings led hundreds of police officers and firefighters, and at least one priest, to their deaths that day — brave and noble men killed in service to their neighbors. A sense of calling means that each of us does our best to help free the world from the darkness and devastation that threaten to overwhelm it. Through work well done, we witness to the One who calls us — just as Casey Sheehan did.

Somehow, given the record of Casey Sheehan's life, this seems like a much more eloquent and apt epitaph than his mother's hate-filled rhetoric.