I chose to look past all the BS. Last night was an opportunity to reflect on Ryan and his wife's sacrifice on behalf of this country (for me) . I was moved for and prayed for both of them last night. She looks like a beautiful and strong woman. I can see why Ryan gave his life in defense of her freedom. Without her being there I would never have had the opportunity to know her face, grieve for her and pray for her.

I am glad his wife was there last night. I hope she is glad she attended.

I don't care how many people agree with me.

Because the fallen son was honored. You can't see that?

Trump may have been defending the raid (and it's a raid that is probably worth defending).

Owens was honored. Did that not look genuine to you?

The dad is a dick for not showing up (and I think this is sad and if I had to guess I think he'll regret it).

All of those can be true.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

If the president wants to use the honoring of his death as a political stunt, then yes, to do that he has to - by definition - honor him. And for it to be an effective political stunt it has to appear genuine, or it totally backfires. And I'm sure Trump was indeed genuine in his sentiments towards Owens' wife, but again, if the father has even the remotest incling this was a political stunt (which you agree with above), I cannot see how he's being a dick for not wanting to attend an event that isn't PURELY about honoring his fallen son.

The president was one of hundreds in the room. Do you think everyone who gave a 2 minute standing ovation just did it as a stunt?

And of those hundreds in the room applauding, guess who was absent....

Oh and did you see the CNN poll on Trump honoring Owens? Might want to take a look.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

It doesn't matter about the other hundreds GENUINELY honoring him - what matters is the one guy who was doing it to score political points. And if the poll shows it helped Trump in the ratings, I guess it worked. Um, bravo?

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't think we are in a place to call the father a dick given all the circumstances.

My hunch (as a father myself) is that he will end up regretting this for the rest of his life.

Just a hunch.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

http://www.msn.com/...r-AAnGq61?li=BBnb7Kz

As a father who has lost two sons, my hunch is that you could be correct. However, I would also say that people calling the guy a dick are out of line. Maybe he is the horrible person some of you are making him out to be. Maybe he's not. What is certain is that people grieve in different ways. Because you or anyone else would respond a given way in this man's situation (which I would argue you can't know for certain) in no way delegitimizes his suffering or grief.

I understand what you're saying. I didn't say the guy is a dick. I said he looks like a dick for missing out on being present for what has been called a very impressive tribute to his son.

Again, if it were me and I missed that? I'd feel like a dick.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

No, you literally said "the dad is a dick." You presume to know what is best for him and what his life's regret will be. Why you would quibble over a little name calling at this point is beyond me.

Ok. I said he was a dick. Whatever.

Happy now?

I don't really care anymore anyway. I've moved on to thinking about the method in which I die and counting all my money becaue the Dow hit 21,000.

How 'bout you go eat a bag of dicks...

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I just want to say without anyone hating on me.I back President Trump. If my son was killed in this timeline i would not have went either. I just could not handle it, i would choose to handle it in a more personal way. It would have nothing with my son dying a hero for our country.

It may be just my age. It may be just my my life experience (including ground combat). Probably, though, my opinion has developed by listening and watching others. Observing leads me to this. Losing anyone in your life to tragic death is soul shaking. Having that experience play out on a world stage is simply inconceivable to me.

Politicization of an event like this, though normal in our instant and sound bite limited news cycle, is disgusting yet instinctive. Here is where the age and experience play out. Big pause....deep breath....and slow down. Look at what Sister Marion taught me. Who, what, when, where, and why. In this case there are two distinct topics incorrectly being blended. There is Dan's implied assertion of a right leaning biased media and there is the reaction to the actual raid, death of a warrior, and the father's choice of how to grieve. The first logical step after the deep breath is to separate the topics and look at the one in question.

Dan's big point (though not specific, which news sources?), when objectively viewed is, in my opinion, correct. Unfortunately, we seem to only have two media camps in our country, conservative and liberal. In my experience most people have a tendency to follow the news that best fits their personal political leanings. In turn, the media outlets tilt further and further toward their side gaining loyalty among their base and more advertising revenue from that base. This two camp system leads people to oversimplify and over react to stories which conflict with their predetermined narrative. In this case, most would expect the proud dad of a seal to take some solace in the condolences of the Commander in Chief. When he does not (for whatever reason) both camps build on the facts to benefit their side. The left goes into, "What a bad Commander in Chief we have. Even the father of this SEAL hates him." and the right, well...they hunker down until they can find a chance to change the narrative, "It was Obama's mission." "SEALS sign up for this." Etc. Both sides play the game. I've waited under fire for air support (not for very long but it seemed like an eternity) and I have great empathy for the men and women in Benghazi who waited and waited and got nothing. I remain amazed at how the left media obfuscated and excused this national blunder and how the right media blew it up to try to get their side into office.

The who, what, when where, and why of Dan's point are pretty straight forward. Who? The right leaning media. What? Provide little coverage on this story in comparison to the left. When? Immediately after the event. Why? It does not play well with their base. All, in my opinion, true. So what's the big deal? There's the rub and there is the big issue, the one we should worry about and address. The big deal is that we the consuming public are not looking at all sides of issues. We, therefore, do not well listen to each other, and we work to destroy the other side in place of working on issues on which we agree there are problems. As a personally conservative libertarian, I see problems with immigration, race relations, military industrial complex, etc. These are issues for liberals as well. So why can't / why don't we fix them? In large part because our bifurcated media has produced antagonistic groups that prefer to call each other names in very loud screaming voices than to humbly listen, find the common thread and build a better community.

I'm fairly certain that Dan and I are in very different political camps. That's O.K. with me. I'll give him a listen. Just because I may disagree doesn't make him bad, evil, or (the left media's go to) Hitler. I've had the opportunity to sit with Dan. He's a swell guy in person. Online, however, sometimes I have to slow down, take the deep breath, and ask myself, "what is Dan really saying here?" rather than instinctively ranting. Maybe, it would be nice if we had a third, slower, more thoughtful wing of news media that could do that as well. Maybe we would get complete reports of the stresses of a Secretary of Sate who didn't expect her world to go sideways in a second and didn't have the perfect reaction or the relationship between a father and his Navy Seal son and their political leanings. I guess what I naively hope for is a fact based media with a passion for full understanding of the facts.

That was, um, thoughtful. You have no business posting here!

Got it. Raid =bad, Death =bad, father=mad
Go America!

How partisan are you? Maybe you need to grow up and look around you. Every EVERY President has done this type of honoring of a fallen soldier, police officer, etc. It has been going on for decades. That includes Obama, whom I'm sure you are in love with since most on the left worship him.

May I suggest the same thing to you that I suggested to my niece. Grow up, you lost an election, the world has not ended, turn off the news and get a life.

I voted Republican in the last election, but I'll do my best to grow up. Thanks for the sage advice. How old are you?

So you voted for Trump? If so, that makes one of us.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I only voted in local elections. I couldn't vote forTrump or Clinton.

Well, then that makes 2 of us.

za zda-ró-vye!!!!

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb