The anniversary of 9/11 passed last week with little fanfare. I always try to take some time on that day to remember how I felt as chaos unfolded around us. One thing that sticks out to me - and still does today - is how willing we were to part with our civil rights and personal freedoms to ensure safety. In one quick motion we were ready to undo what our forefathers had spent centuries trying to accomplish.

Here we are, seven years later, stuck with Homeland Security and The Patriot Act, giving the Government permission to monitor Web activity and redefine airport security. I’ve gotten use to these things, but as I was thinking this year I realized a new, unsettling fact: if someone had asked you in the young hours following the attack would you sacrifice personal freedoms AND your fourth grader (if you had one) would you have been as anxious to say yes?

See, some of the fourth graders who were witnesses to that attack are now in their senior year and being recruited for the military to fight the war resulting from 9/11. That kind of blows my mind. We entered a war that is now falling on the shoulders of the Tickle Me Elmo generation.

At least these kids still have a choice if they want to enter the military. That might not always be the case. Think about that as election day draws closer.