A comment Tom Ridge made in a brief chat he and I had after John McCain's visit to York this week is worth relating here.

I told Gov. Ridge how pleased my family had been that, in his capacity as Director of Homeland Security, he had been the commencement speaker at the United States Merchant Marine Academy when a young relative of mine graduated. Ridge's next, very next, thought was that he was aware that some of the mariners who'd graduated have died in service to their country.

It is so easy -- for me, for anyone -- to assume those in elective office don't really feel the pain the way the families who send their sons and daughters off our shores and into harm's way do. To an extent, that may be a safe assumption. Within the walls of that conversation, though, it startled me to realize how closely he must live with the knowledge that he has sent our men and women out in the name of keeping civilians safe.