{"id":2776,"date":"2012-10-05T11:54:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T17:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2012-10-07T21:21:51","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T03:21:51","slug":"first-person-sometimes-kids-can-make-a-point-we-didnt-think-of-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/first-person-sometimes-kids-can-make-a-point-we-didnt-think-of-first\/","title":{"rendered":"FIRST PERSON: Sometimes kids can make a point we didn’t think of first"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MICHAL KOHANE<\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO (j weekly) — \u201cYou don\u2019t mind me applying to West Point Military Academy, Mom, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWest Point?\u201d I thought, surprised. But it was fall. Graduation seemed like light years away.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo ahead,\u201d I said, trying to sound casual. \u201cLet me know if you need anything,\u201d I added on automatic pilot, not having a clue what might be needed.<\/p>\n

My son Ohr thanked me politely and told me he wanted to do this by himself.<\/p>\n

Some 1,000 candidates are accepted out of more than 15,000 applicants nationally, I told myself, perhaps as consolation. I backed off and watched Ohr fill out long applications, write essays, get recommendations and train regularly. He watched me trying to deal with the idea.<\/p>\n

Hesitating, I asked if he was sure about all this. \u201cEveryone should serve their country,\u201d he said. \u201cYou did that, Mom, didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in Israel, like everybody else around me, I was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces when I was 18 and served in an elite intelligence unit. My mom was a medic in the same army 30 years earlier during the War of Independence. Thirty years before that, her father was an officer in Europe during World War I. Others in our family have done the same, and yet \u2026 this was mandatory in countries far away. And none of them were my kid.<\/p>\n

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