Sacrifices We Take for Granted

by Alexa Pichert, Drake journalism

In a thick Boston accent, David O'Connor told us how his children cried every time they had to move, that he'll miss his own son's firsthockey game next week, how his wife hates his Blackberry because every call means he'll have to rush off somewhere. He saw more of Chelsea Clinton's childhood than he has of his own children's. But to him, Chelsea Clinton, John McCain, and the Obamas are all "protectees".

"Every time I type that word," he told us, "my spell-check highlights it. We use a lot of in-house language at the Secret Service."

For 22 years, David O'Connor has served in this small branch of the Department of Homeland Security.  Originally formed to track down counterfeiters whose fake currency made up a third of all money circulating in the 1860s, the Secret Service took on protection of Presidents after the McKinley assassination. Nowadays they also protect "major candidates" under a US statute.

What has that meant?

He's traveled the world with Bill Clinton. "It would probably be easier to list the countries I haven't been to," he said.

The job is different with every President, he told us, but he adjusted, from protecting "an 82-year-old Ronald Reagan" to "jogging with Bill Clinton every morning." But the job is also always the same: Protect the protectee.

He talked about visiting the Obama household and explaining to Michelle and the kids what life would be like now that Barack Obama was the Democrat's "presumptive nominee."

My own thoughts? If the Secret Service men hardly have time for their families, how can someone like Barack Obama have time for his family? These are the men that travel around with them and they hardly have time for their loved ones. How can Obama with young children really have time to be there for his girls? What really impressed me the most about this mans speech was what these people have to give up in order to become the President of the United States.  You give up any sort of normal life for you, your family and everyone around you.  If Obama is elected his daughters will have to go to school everyday surrounded by Secret Service men, who are giving up just as much of their lives as the Obamas would be.  These people are all making sacrifices for us to be able to live our lives the way we do.