“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to serve. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”
Abraham Lincoln wrote these words in 1864 to a mother who had lost five sons fighting for the Union. I thought of them as I read and heard the news of the disintegration of the shuttle “Columbia” on February 1st . They aptly fit as remarks one could make to the loved ones of those seven crewmembers that died. I thought President Bush’s image of the stars going home and his quote from Isaiah very apt. “The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home”
There was a dramatic contrast between Super Sunday of January 26th and the Heroic Saturday of February 1st. The week after January 26th and for many days thereafter we had heroes that were really only ‘celebrities’, on Saturday we had “real” heroes. The sacrifice made by the crew of the Shuttle Columbia made the ‘sacrifice’ of professional football players’ look mighty paltry. It was a proper placing, in my opinion, of what we should consider “important” and earth shaking. How so many of us glory in the acts of professional game players as compared to those real men who face the challenge daily of making this a better world. It is a sad commentary on our culture. It reminded me of a short essay written ironically about a verse in Isaiah, but not the one chosen by President Bush. It was, “See, a king will rule justly and princes will rule rightly…. No more will fools be called noble, nor tricksters be considered honorable.” The questions the writer asked are “Where have all the heroes gone? Where are the men of courage, principle, and integrity, who operate with vision, drive and initiative and whose achievements are plain to see, beneficial, and far reaching? What happened to the great athletes who played through their pain, who believed they were role models to the young, and who invested their lives in their communities, playing for one team all their careers? People talk about the death of God. But what about the death of heroes?”
The attempts to answer those questions are more relevant this month than ever. We are hearing these days about a war for the purpose of destroying an ‘evil empire’, but we are not convinced, according to the media. We are not convinced of the evil of the empire or that it is a thing we should attempt. Is the answer that we live in a cynical age that respects nothing and reveres nobody. Since it is alleged that God is dead, apparently we can’t find a proper substitute. Values have lost their basis for belief. One author wrote, “As modern people we look not for the golden aura but for feet of clay, not for the shining example but for the cynical motive.” It was further noted that we see fewer “heroes” for the very simple reason that there aren’t as many around! “We have traded heroes for celebrities” The author’s conclusion is that we are lacking in heroes “because we have lost sight of God as an active participant in human lives.”
It is incidents like the death of these seven heroes who dedicated their lives to making the world a better place that sometime make us think. We had a similar reaction to the September 11th massacre but how quickly we forget. We know, and hope, that none of these conclusions reside with the readers of these ramblings. We couldn’t bring ourselves to let this opportunity pass for me to remind myself by writing this of what is “important”.
A semi-important incident in my health life will take place next week. I will have growing cataracts removed from my eyes. The right one on Tuesday Feb.11th and the left on Feb. 25th. The right eye is the worst of the two. It has a nuclear and sub-capsular condition. For those of you not familiar with this esoteric language of cataracts, it means one has it happening on the nucleus or center of the eyeball and the other, subcapsular, means it is under the back of the capsule or the elastic covering of the lens. The left one has only the nuclear condition. All of this professional jargon is the result of my searching on the net and discussions with the doctor. I just didn’t want you to think I am branching off into the study optics. I originally thought the blur in my right eye was due to all the medicine changes since my pseudo-TIA in September and October. It was not that but just another dividend of the “Golden Years”. The aging process effects some people with a lot more pain and loss of physical activity than a couple of blurred eyes. The operation takes about all of 10 minutes with some preparation the day before, but a promise in most cases of better vision with a few days afterwards. So we shall be thankful for one more gift. I was hoping the operation would result in my ‘looking’ better, but it will only result in my ‘seeing’ better. Barbara Nummi, a friend of ours, is the administrator of an apartment house for modest income adults. It has a building full of “golden-years” residents. She said some of them who had cataracts removed were upset by the condition it caused, namely “more wrinkles than I’ve ever had before” It apparently didn’t occur to some of them that it may just have been the result of seeing better!
I am happy to report now nearly a week since the operation that it was a grand success. I may not look any better but I am seeing much better. I even find in some circumstance where the light is good I do NOT even need the reading glasses. I look forward to the operation on the left eye on Tuesday the 25th with the hope that my seeing will be even more improved.
All this talk about golden years and ailments reminds me of an adage. “You know you are growing old when all the names in your ‘little black book’ end with M.D. after them” My book is filling up.
Our nation faces a great moral problem. Shall we go to war? We are told that it is proper and right because we are attacking evil and removing a threat to others and ours lives. The doubters have an easy retort to this suggestion, since the knowledge of the evilness and arms of Iraq are not clear, that we attack North Korea since we know they have a nuclear capability or almost so. The same cynics point to other motivations for the attack on Iraq like oil and it is easier to wage such a war. This is an easily drawn conclusion and we see many columnist and media pundits arguing it. What ever happen to our belief that the man we elected President would only act for a good and proper motive such as protection of our country? We have been sadly disappointed in the past with the motivation and conduct of our elected representatives, so that it is easy to be a doubter. I am one, or was one. But as I thought about it I realized that most of my cynicism or doubting might be lopsided. I didn’t doubt President Kennedy when he told us Russia and Cuba were setting up a nuclear launching base in Cuba. I couldn’t read those pictures taken from high in the sky anymore that I can read the present ones. Could it be that this ‘reasonable man’ is being influenced by partisan politics? It is always tough to trust. Whether it’s a loving partner, an attorney, doctor, or a spiritual leader. Yet when we do, we grow in faith in one another. I have come to believe that we should trust President Bush in that he is not acting with insufficient knowledge of the danger and has the safety and peace of our country as a goal. The fear is still there. The trust is still shaky but with the help of prayer and moral determination we can support him, our leader, until, and if, the evidence clearly indicates the motive was not as we trusted and believed.
I think all of this can be applied to the most recent argument: We should wait for the UN to be united. I think reason can help us with answers there. The record shows Iraq as ignoring the UN for years and that only this threat of action has brought the UN to act. I would like to see the UN behind our President and the world united in this effort but their failure to show much upset at the past violations by Iraq leaves me to doubt it will come to past. The ‘past is prologue’. It appears the sudden partial compliance has come about only with the threat of action.
Reading of all the protests now being made, reminds me of my brother Father Dick, an active peace lover who protested through out his life against any war, justified or not. I recently received a copy of a “The Catholic Peace Voice” newspaper of Jan/Feb 2003. It devoted a whole page to “Richard McSorley” an “ambassador of peace and founding member of Pax Christi USA”. It has a smiling picture of him included. He would not agree with anything I have written here. He was against all war, justified or not. He is now in heaven enjoying his reward for faithfulness but I am sure if we meet again in that heavenly abode we would still disagree, as we did in this abode about this and many other things. I admired his perseverance in his beliefs even when we disagreed. “The man who agrees with us that some questions, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our friend. He need NOT agree with us about the answers.” (C.S.Lewis) So it was with Brother Dick and I. We agreed the issues were of ‘great importance’ but not on the answers. I wonder too how any protesters would be treated in Iraq? I think we all know the answer to that question.
Pax Tecum!