I NEED A HERO

SOME ASK “WHERE ARE THE HEROES?” The heroes and the heroines are all around us.  If people cannot agree on who the courageous are, that means a battle remains to be won. In war, hero is a princely title awarded by the victors more often than the vanquished, but peace has princes as well.  War starts with a clean break.  Lasting peace, however, is with more difficulty won.  My heroes are those who know peace must be won without victor or vanquished. Peace must be a courageous win for all.

WHEN I THINK OF WHERE WE ARE NOW, I cannot help but think of where we once were, and where we yet might be.  When I think of this war in Iraq, I cannot help but think of that war, the war unspoken of but in the whisper of the mind, the war which we endeavor to win again on a different field where time has seeming stopped.  Fighting terrorists over there so we do not have to fight them here is something we have heard before.  Flypaper theory is domino theory of forty years ago.  The shame is we refuse to remember lessons written in blood.

GLORIOUS WAR IS A TALE TOLD BY LIARS Warriors true remember only its horrors, the unforgotten intimacy of the blood drenched screams, the endless tears forever in a stream.  I think of this now as I remember back when, a time much the same, lived by different men.  In a different place but to the same result, we are fighting Vietnam all over again.

ALL GLORIOUS WAR IS A TALE TOLD WITH A SHOUT What I hear in this land is the whisper in the sky, the strength that is doubt.  Doubt is the father of courage, a question is the mother of hope.  Doubt would tell us what we have, what is lost.  The question would savor what yet lives.  Those who question need not calculate death’s infinite cost. Those who question war already know its cost.

ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY KNEW THE COST OF THAT CONFLICT AND WAR He lost his brother to the bullet of hate and lost his own life to another. He was the coldest of the cold warriors, a Fifties foe of communists behind every corner lamp post. While my father called Kennedy a carpet bagger New York Senator from Massachusetts and Hickory Hill, Virginia, RFK traveled the hero’s landscape of transformation.

THE HERO MUST FIRST WIN THE CONFLICT within his soul. Or her soul.  Eternal truth and the truth of the past are not the same.  The hero recognizes how the present lies with words of old.  True heroic power recognizes The dignity of all and offers respect for the weak. The true hero is far different from the bully we see in the White House. For us or against us is not the hero’s call. The hero calls with the whispered memories of the heart.

AS ROBERT KENNEDY SAID, as quoted by his brother in a funeral ORATION: Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. And I believe that in this generation those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.

WE LIVE IN SUCH TIMES WHERE HEROES AND HEROINES small  and many may yet change this world. We may not realize it now, but those who follow will. And that in the end is all that matters.

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[ROBERT KENNEDY EULOGY BY TED KENNEDY] For the fortunate among us, there is the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition and financial success so grandly spread before those who enjoy the privilege of education. But that is not the road history has marked out for us. Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty. But they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. All of us will ultimately be judged, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that event.
The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society. Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
That is the way he lived. That is what he leaves us.
My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

[SPONTANEOUS ARISING] HERO WITH ONE FACE

[EZRA KLEIN] As a culture, we seem to have left heroism, at least the traditional sort, behind. Not in every case, but consider it: Our Star Wars trilogy features the antihero, not the hero. Our comic books have descended into shades of gray, waves of complexity. We don't have heroes, we have tortured souls, traumatized crimefighters. We don't have Superman, we have Batman. Spiderman is quaint, it's Wolverine's day now.

[SHAKESPEARE’S SISTER] . . . occasionally something really wonderful happens in the blogosphere—the blossoming of an idea, as someone presents an interesting thought, and someone else takes it and adds to it, and on and on it goes. It isn’t always something important on a grand scale, but it always makes me feel quite good about and satisfied by this endeavor.

[LANCE MANNION] One of the different things is that violence against women on the part of the hero is not just allowed.  It’s as gleefully indulged and as brutal as the violence superheroes inflict on their male enemies.

Comments

[Neil Shakespeare]

Need a hero? BUY ONE. Buried in the NYT "Reach of War" link on its web page is an article entitled "The Other Army" by Daniel Bergen that documents the 25,000 (yes, that's 25,000!) mercenaries funded by OUR GOVERNMENT, or 16% (yes, that 16%!) of our total "manpower" in Iraq. The policy of "private contracting" has been deliberately followed by this administration to coverup their incompetence in executing this fiasco. Huge government contracts worth billions of dollars. These are OUR mercenaries, not any of the dozens of "private militias" of the various fighting Iraqi entities.

[wanda]

What an amazing and beautiful post!!! It leaves me humbled by my inability to respond.
If you need a hero, look no further than the men and women who remain strong in the face of the evil that has infected our government and it's leaders. Yes, they are small, and for the most part go unnoticed, but they continue their vigil. They continue to stand up for peace, for the dignity of all. Not just those who share their religious or political beliefs. They stand against war and it's ghastly trimmings. They protest along dusty dirty roads, they write in blogs and online journals. They write for newspapers, where their work is met with scorn and distain. They may be appear to be small and insignificant ripples on the pond but they continue to make those ripples, least the pond become stagnant with hate and prejudice. These are our hero's.
"We may not realize it now, but those who follow will. And that in the end is all that matters."

[PoliShifter]

Awesome stuff Heretik!
Thanks Neil for pointing out the article
The Other Army

A NeoCon Dream is to one day have a fully privatized military force that can serve the corporate will without having to get approval from the pesky Congress or American People.

[Neil Shakespeare]

Wanda: YES! BUT THESE CONS STILL WANT THE TAXPAYERS TO PAY FOR IT, AND APPARENTLY THEY'VE SUCCEEDED! I knew there were mercenaries over there, of course, but I had no idea of the extent of it. I just checked the NYT page and see it's already #5 on their emailed articles list. Everything about this war and these bastards running it pisses me off, but this really puts a blaze in my shorts.

[Words Have Power]

I think that Cindy Sheehan is a hero in the RFK mold. She sees things as they are and has the courage and vision to try and change them to what they should be.

Earlier I wrote about Ms. Sheehan:

"...what Cindy Sheehan is doing with her vigil is exposing the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration. She is shining a light on the lack of values and morality that are at the heart of the Bush Presidency. She is, by her quiet dignity, separating the words "compassionate" and "conservative" is such a way that neither George Bush nor his theocratic allies on the religious right will every be able to put the two together again."

Making America work is not a one time fix, it is a lifetime process. RFK saw that. We all need to understand that.

Thanks.

[Night Bird]

Nice post Heretik!

[Night Bird]

I seem to recall those words, very clearly!

[The Heretik]

For anybody who can make it to Binghamton, New York mid September, I relay the following information about some of my heroes :THE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY FOUR

Here is some info:
Join us during the St. Patrick's Four Trial -
The Only Federal Conspiracy Trial of
Civilian Anti-War Activists
September 19, 2005 - Binghamton, NY
Federal Court

Also join us every evening after trial @ 7 pm for a
Citizens' Tribunal on the Iraq War
across from court @ Christ Episcopal Church
A 5-night tribunal to articulate the legal, moral, and historical defense
for civil resistance to this illegal war.

CONFIRMED: Ray McGovern, Medea Benjamin, Camilo Mejia,
Kathy Kelly, John Bonifaz, Cindy Sheehan, Jimmy Massey,
Liz McAlister, U.S. Rep. Hinchey and others.

September 18, Sunday @ Christ Episcopal Church, a
"Festival of Hope" to kick off the trial!
A day of sharing faith, hope, music, food and community!

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