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Posted on 12/20/2001 5:57:03 AM PST by The Source Of All Good Things

Sometimes certain elements of society get buried very deeply. In our society, one such element is heroism. By "heroism", I mean an unembarrassed celebration of personal strength, patriotism, nobility, charity, devotion, moral conviction; all the old fashioned better angels of human nature that people used to write epics about.

To see how heroism (as defined above) has fallen by the wayside in modern culture, just compare films of the thirties and forties to almost any movie made in the last few decades.

In the thirties and forties, there were strong, unembarrassed heroes like John Wayne (Angel and the Badman), Jimmy Stewart (It's a Wonderful Life), Gary Cooper (Meet John Doe), and Errol Flynn (the original 1938 Robin Hood).

Over the last few decades, the portrayal of the real man has been replaced by an embarrassed, apologetic, guy-as-goofball motif. Movies have become self-referential, focusing more on product placement and political correctness than on honest sentiment. The strong, passionate love scenes featured in the films mentioned in the preceding paragraph have been supplanted by tawdry, meaningless, virtually NC-17 scenes. Black-and-white conflicts have been replaced by shades of gray, situational ethics, and moral relativity. In short, strength has been replaced by weakness, conviction by cowardice, and heroism by hedonism.

My question is, why? The occasional rare films such as The Patriot, or Braveheart, or even Air Force One, all of which unembarrassedly celebrate strength, and patriotism, and heroism, do well at the box office. Their success illustrates that millions of people, on some fundamental level, want and need what they represent. Even so, they remain rare. Again, why? As pop culture reflects/projects the states of mind of the consumers who buy it and/or the media moguls who produce it, this question is a critical one.

These questions came to mind after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center this past September 11. It was one of the most horrible moments in the history of these United States, and my heart goes out to the victims of the attacks, and their families. Nothing could justify what happened, despite cries of "Western Imperialism" and vaguely anti-semitic injunctions against U.S. support of Israel in it´s battles with the terrorist states and quasi-states which surround it.

Along with horror and absolutely justifiable outrage against Usama bin laden, Saddam Hussein, and the various state-sponsored worldwide terrorist networks which perpetrate attacks like this one, something extremely interesting has come out of the events of 9/11: an honest, if previously buried, respect for (and even love for) personal strength, heroism, and patriotism.

We are seeing this respect in the applause and accolades extended to the firemen and policemen who are risking their limbs, health, and very lives as they navigate treacherous rubble, sacrificing fingers to sharp steel shards and breathing toxic asbestos-laced fumes just on the odd chance that they might save the life of someone whom they´ve never met.

We see the same respect in bipartisan applause for President Bush as he, tears in his eyes, holds up the badge of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. We see it in the grimy hands of NYC´s bravest, holding a teddy bear rescued from the remains of the WTC daycare center. That´s right, folks, the WTC had a daycare center. Full of toddlers at 9:15 a.m. on 9/11/01, I´m sure.

This same newly-uncovered respect for personal strength, heroism, and patriotism is evident in the flags flying in front of many homes, and apartments, and dorm rooms throughout the country. The American Flag represents a respect for innocent life, democracy, free speech, honor, and appreciation for those who have died to protect those things. Every building in the country should be flying the American Flag to indicate concordance with all of that, all of which the terrorists sought — and seek — to destroy.

Every building should fly the flag every day, in perpetuity, not just for a week, or a month. This is the greatest country in the world, and we should be proud to acknowledge it 365 days a year. As our firemen and policemen are standing up for us in NYC and in cities around the nation, and as our Special Operations forces are at this moment standing up for us in Afghanistan, we need to stand up for them.

That means that even when Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have been rendered historical footnotes compliments of our Armed Forces, even when the rubble of the WTC has been cleared away and replaced by a suitable memorial, we still need to fly our flags, and respect not only the individuals who place themselves in harm´s way on our behalf, but the concept of heroism itself.

America has bent a knee to shades of gray, situational ethics, and moral relativism long enough. It´s time to make patriotism, moral virtue, nobility, charity, devotion, moral conviction, pride, and an unembarrassed celebration of personal strength the values of America again.

The United States of America is the last, best hope of civilization on Earth. We need heroism if we are to survive and prosper into the rest of the 21st century. Our films, our flagpoles, and our day-to-day lives can reflect the respect for heroism which, God willing, will never be buried again.

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