Sacrifice

Gov. Martin O'Malley, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller are making the best of the embarrassing situation caused by their failure to pass a balanced budget when the legislature adjourned in April. The special legislative session due to begin on Monday will focus only on the budget and taxes — not casino gambling or any of the other issues that were still on the table when time ran out — and will follow closely the compromise worked out by House and Senate negotiators on the regular session's final night.

Deficit reduction is an important national priority, vital to our long-term economic opportunity and security. But just because it's important doesn't mean that it can be undertaken without regard to our national values. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives left values on the sideline this week when it moved forward with a shocking proposal to cut food assistance for our nation's hungry by over $33 billion. That it was done in the name of deficit reduction does not excuse the fact that cuts to anti-hunger programs at a time when need has never been greater are both reckless and short-sighted.

Mitt Romney's wife Ann is at the center of a renewed battle in the mommy wars, which have raged since the end of the Ozzie and Harriett days. Should the leading Republican presidential candidate be consulting his wife, as he says he does, on issues about women? A CNN commentator created a firestorm by saying Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life, so how could she understand economic issues facing women today? Apologies for the comment were forthcoming, and rightly so. Certainly raising five boys must be considered "working.

No idea in American society is more pervasive than the notion that we all owe a debt of gratitude to the young men and women who have volunteered to fight our foreign wars. This nearly universal belief flows from a sense of collective guilt that the veterans of our previous Asian adventure in Vietnam were not welcomed home with appreciation for their sacrifices and were somehow held responsible for America's first losing war. This attitude was especially unfair since many of the participants in that conflict were draftees who had little choice about their service.

While I agree with some of Max Richtman's commentary on Social Security ("Protect senior programs," Feb. 17), many of his observations are misleading. Certainly, most any poll will show that people do not want any benefit cuts, and I would bet that most would want benefits to increase. That's just human nature. As an old saying goes, "When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you'll always have Paul's vote. " However, his use of such terms and phrases as "earned benefits" and "economic reason" do not pass muster when certain facts are considered.

Members of Liberty High School's Thespian Society are scheduled to perform J. Robert Wilkins' play, "War Letters," this week at the International Thespian Society Festival, Maryland Conference. The festival will be held Jan. 6-7 at Tuscarora High School in Frederick County. After those performances, the troupe will bring the show home to Liberty High School, Bartholow Road, Eldersburg, for performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Jan. 12, 13 and 14, at 7 p.m., with a special matinee show also on Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. "War Letters," depicts the story of a soldier on a peacekeeping mission overseas, and the ways in which his family deals with separation via letters.

During the week after Christmas, my family and I returned to BWI on a military rotation flight after 10 days of leave in Germany. After passing through customs we were met by several hundred people enthusiastically cheering service members returning from Iraq. There were parents and grandparents and veterans and Girl Scout troops. I tried to hurry my family along as quickly as possible, feeling that this amazing welcome was not for us. But it was impossible not to smile. The gratitude and enthusiasm of that crowd of welcomers was palpable.

This week, the last U.S. combat troops left Iraq. After more than eight years of fighting an ill-conceived, inexcusably prolonged war made more devastating by official ineptitude and hubris, America's soldiers are coming home for Christmas. The nation that welcomes them back honors their sacrifice and the courage with which they served their country. Yet it may be years before we can fully assess the sacrifice our men and women in uniform made during America's longest and most unpopular war since Vietnam.

A thin fragment of moon stood watch that Christmas Eve as the president of the United States and the prime minister of Great Britain came out onto the South Portico of the White House. They were there to light the national Christmas tree -- and to speak a holiday greeting to an uncertain world. Two and a half weeks earlier -- and 70 years ago last week -- the Japanese had devastated the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. A nation that had endured 12 grinding years of economic catastrophe was now plunged into a maelstrom of worldwide war. It was Christmas in time of turmoil, a season of brotherhood and peace under the shadow of genocide and war -- and it fell to these two men to help the nation and the world make sense of that.

Thanks to Gilbert Sandler ("It still lives in Infamy," Dec. 7) for reminding us of some of the costs of war in his account of Baltimore after Pearl Harbor. What a contrast with today. Our leaders can carry on wars without affecting most of us one bit. No danger, no draft, no rationing, no tax increase, no blackouts. Only if we serve in the armed forces or have a family member there do we suffer anything. We do not even have to pay for the war - we can borrow to cover the cost. It is almost enjoyable and certainly exciting.