NOKD

Sometimes a simple newspaper story can really make my jaw drop. It's the local angle on a familiar national story -- parents are preventing their kids from enlisting in the military services -- but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, though reporting well on the problem, didn't pick up the same point I did.

The story starts at "a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted [the Marine recruiter] wearing an American flag T-shirt. 'I want you to know we support you,' she gushed." But not actually, you know, support. Pittsburgh's northern suburbs tend to be upscale Republican-stronghold country-club country, more new money than old these days, but lots of it. Not at all like my friends and neighbors who are veterans or whose kids signed up. Gushy Mom quickly put the staff sergeant in his place:

Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people.

This on the same day as the wire story about five more members of the Pennsylvania National Guard killed in Iraq. The state is mourning seven Guardsmen killed within a week. The dead include a firefighter, a cop, and a cop's kid. Public servants. Not "our kind," dear? Who's supporting whom?

Postscript: The quote seems to have zipped around the blogosphere, raising hackles and questions. In the original story, neither the woman nor the exact municipality is identified, though I have no reason to doubt the work of this veteran reporter, Jack Kelly, national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio. OTOH, I don't know for certain that Mr. Kelly personally witnessed this exchange or is relying on his source for the woman's words.

Update: FWIW, the anecdote -- and the inflammatory quote -- was relayed by Sgt. Rivera, i.e. it was not witnessed personally by the reporter. (I asked.) So factor that into your credibility meter. The quote has provoked a lot of outrage, justifiably so. And while I don't at all disagree with James Robison's thoughts in the comments section, I will note that in earlier centuries a sense of noblesse oblige ("the obligations of nobility") pushed more of the privileged to do their duty. "To those who are given much, much is expected."