Flying The Silver Lining

The bad news: grandparents learn that their daughter's live-in boyfriend has allegedly murdered their three-year old grandson. The brain-dead child is soon to be taken off life-support, and the grandfather is booked on a flight to be at his daughter's side, to help her shoulder the tragedy of her son's final moments.

The worse news: The grandfather is racing against the clock to make his flight from Los Angeles to Denver. TSA and airline employees in both the security and bag check lines at Los Angeles airport are indifferent to his pleas for sympathetic (and speedy) treatment through the long lines; they offer him no help whatsover in speeding up the process. Despite arriving at the airport two hours before his flight, he ends up ten minutes late for his plane; the desperate grandfather makes a final scramble without shoes, and fleeting hope, down to the terminal.

The surprising good news waiting for him there, as told by his grateful wife:

When he got [to the terminal], the pilot of his plane and the ticketing agent both said, “Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we’re so sorry about the loss of your grandson.”
The pilot held the plane that was supposed to take off at 11:50 until 12:02 when my husband got there.
As my husband walked down the Jetway with the pilot, he said, “I can’t thank you enough for this.”
The pilot responded with, “They can’t go anywhere without me and I wasn’t going anywhere without you. Now relax. We’ll get you there. And again, I’m so sorry.”

My husband was able to take his first deep breath of the day.

Consumer advocate and journalist Christopher Elliot, an acquaintance of the grandmother, contacted Southwest Airlines to get a comment on their staff's decision to break the rules for the sake of a grieving passenger:

[A] representative said the airline was “proud” of the way the pilot had held the flight. Again, most airlines would punish an employee who holds up the line for any reason.

ABC News has a video report on the story, with the last word given to the grandfather:

Dickinson says he never got the pilot's name and couldn't find him after the flight to thank him properly, and now just wants to shake his hand.
"I can't tell him how grateful I am that he did that for me," he said.

In this post-compassionate age of rampant cynicism and crass opportunism, it's refreshing to read this story of corporate compassion; if anything can be of solace to grieving families at a time like that in their lives, and to renew their faith in the potential for human goodness, surely it's the sterling example offered by Southwest Airlines, a company that dares to care.

Breathing New Life Into The American Trinity

There is much truth to be found in fantasy, which helps explain, I suppose, our ongoing fascination with dreams. And cartoons.

No matter how old I get I hope I never grow too old to enjoy cartoons. Watching some childhood favorites again through Youtube, I see them today with new eyes, as exhibits of something I absorbed but never understood, when first observing them at a younger age.


The Hollywood theatrical cartoon of the forties and fifties is so delightfully, unapologetically, indelibly American. The best of them reflect the best of American civilization: its capacity for keeping faith, its belief in re-invention... both cultural tenets joining as one, in the form of the Happy Ending. (In the above example, a pragmatic Happy Ending, making it all the more quintessentially American: where else is it so ingrained to take lemons and turn them into lemonade..?)

A further American trait I see on display in many of the old cartoons, going hand in hand with the ideal of re-invention, are their many examples of forgiveness. Old enemies putting aside deeply-held grievances in order to rally and address a new and greater problem, exhibiting the rare self-discipline of not holding a grudge.


Growing out from the ability to keep faith in oneself, benefiting from the belief in the Second Chance formula of “try, try again”, comes the true arena for success: a forum that preserves the freedom to fail, so that by trial and error you may learn what you are best suited to become. We are not born to follow in our parents' footsteps unless that ends up being the choice we select for ourselves.


Put them all together and what do you get?

In God We Trust (the most self-renewing source of self-confidence), e pluribus unum [“from the many, one”] (the recipe for moving on from old grudges arising out of old relationships, looking to see what may be shared in common as well as where there may be differences), and Liberty (the freedom to fail while searching for the best version of ourselves to become): the three stages of the American Trinity, as described on American coinage... and older American cartoons.

For how much longer will this Trinity prevail, with anti-theism on the march, with old grudges increasingly unforgiven, with ever increasing suffocation of Liberty, the fragile laboratory so necessary for innovation and self-discovery?

These besieged older values desperately need to be re-animated with a fresh breath of new life, a new will to forestall a final fade-to-black on the last best hope on Earth.

I imagine we will find a way to win, in the end; it's a dream I picked up from watching a lot of old cartoons...

[With thanks to Dennis Prager]

Friday View

At last, the long-awaited return of our daily round-up of some of the good, bad and ugly spotted around the corner from today's news headlines.

Horror and Hope in Bulgaria: In 2007, documentary filmmaker Kate Blewett put the shame of Bulgaria's Mogilino institute onto all our radar screens, highlighting the appalling conditions governing the care of Bulgaria's Abandoned Children. This week, she returns to see how things have changed, and we get a rare taste of good news for our bleak world:

To witness such human deterioration and to know the only way to truly effect change was to carry on filming and bring the documentary film to a wider audience - was an incredibly difficult process.
However the impact my film had has been extraordinary. Viewers wrote to me by the thousands, donating money, and forming petitions demanding change from their MPs and MEPs.
Some gave up their jobs and went to Bulgaria to help, taking supplies, food, clothing and medical aid.
...
This year I returned to Bulgaria to find out exactly what has happened to some of the key characters from the original film. Once again I was shocked by what I found.
I witnessed the miraculous improvements that can happen in badly-damaged children when decent care is finally given to them.

Read the rest. (Picture courtesy of True Vision Productions)

Mayan doomsday set for December 21, 2012? Not if you actually talk to Mayans...

"I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff [says Mayan elder Apolinario Chile Pixtun]."
...
At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.
"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."
... Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.
"If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist.
"That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain."

American angels: After reading this humbling article about 30 Mexican children receiving free heart treatment in Iowa, all I can think to say is: God Bless America.

... John Gay, a pediatric cardiologist at Mercy, was talking with a local dentist who had visited the Yucatan Peninsula to do dental work. The dentist was surprised by how many children there had heart defects - and little prospects at proper care.
The next year, Gay organized a medical mission to Yucatan. Some children were in such bad condition their extremities were purple.
"We were met with a great deal of suspicion," Gay said. "These people were saying, 'Let's get this straight. You're going to take care of our children. You're going to fly them there and back for free and provide free health care?' "
A few took the offer and returned in better health. And the program grew each year.
...
You could look at Alicia Stessman's visit to the pediatric heart unit at Mercy around 1980 as happenstance. After all, she came only to visit a friend's sick child.

But when she was there, Alicia heard Spanish spoken in the hallway. She was told of Mercy's program for impoverished Mexican children. The Stessmans both spoke Spanish, and both understood life in a foreign land.
"I really fell in love with the program when I met the parents," Alicia Stessman said.
"They were crying, worried, nervous about their children. They didn't know what was going to happen."
Three decades later, the Stessmans still visit the 30 Mexican children who get heart surgeries at Mercy every year. They've also visited Yucatan to help doctors choose a new group of children for surgeries.

The Stessmans pick up the children and parents at the airport. They sit in the waiting room to calm parents as children go through surgery. They celebrate when a surgery goes well. They mourn in the rare instance when it doesn't.
"The Stessmans have been very helpful in allaying those fears of these families," said Thomas Becker, the pediatric cardiologist now in charge of the Yucatan program. "The big payoff is when you go back and you see the kids you operated on before. The parents can't wait to show you how well their kids look, all dressed up and healthy. That's how we get paid, by this big outpouring of love, and the Stesssmans are such a big part of that."

Radio Memories: Gratitude, Family and Patriotism

"My father thanks you, my mother thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."

This expression of gratitude became a familiar conclusion throughout twenty-five years' worth of curtain speeches for one very gifted entertainer's theatrical performances. He was a legend in his own time, at the turn of the 20th century, and hopefully the light of his life's work can continue to shine through our century as brightly as it did through the last.

George M. Cohan's love of country was only eclipsed by love of family, and as I've studied his life over the years his example has often made me wonder about how we may increase the love of one through love of the other, and if either are ever really that separate...

Our Sunday series of posts on Radio Memories, devoted to the glory days of radio drama, the theater of the mind, returns this week with a bang: a biographical broadcast dedicated to that theatrical sensation, that American musical legend,

George M. Cohan.

Wading through YouTube, or similar online archives, will reveal just how much of our recent cultural heritage seems to have been preserved; movies, music, television shows... you name it, it seems to be there, somewhere, ready to be relived anew. Yet, back up a generation or two, and the gaps tend to far outweigh the surviving artifacts of the significant influences that so shaped and entertained the modern mind at the turn of the 20th century.

Some of this historical record was doomed to disappear, given its nature. Vaudeville, such a treasured slice of life for so many decades, has gone the way of all live theater: when the curtain comes down the art lives on only in memory.

Maybe, like life itself, this fleeting quality lends the theatrical performance much of its perceived value. Unlike most other media, it's here-today-gone-tomorrow... just like we are, who make up its audience.

We can watch a filmed version of a stage act, but... "it's just not the same". We can read the dusty playbills and fraying programs from a century ago, listing the great stage performers, and wonder at the magic of an Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and George M. Cohan. What must it have been like, to witness Live? Often enough their stage work was preserved upon film, or record; but, "it's just not the same".

These ghosts from our past are well represented by the Yankee Doodle Boy himself, George M. Cohan. Such a famous celebrity in his day, yet today reduced to anonymity, known primarily for his patriotic contributions to America's musical legacy.

When people my age know him at all, it's perhaps through the wonderful James Cagney biographical film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, a cinematic tribute that Cohan himself lived to see before cancer brought down the final curtain on his career in that wartime year of 1942.

That career saw over 10,000 stage appearances, the writing of 500 songs (according to his autobiography; 1,500 songs, according to the experts at Wikipedia), making his first appearance on the stage at the age of eight in 1886, retiring after appearing in his last play in 1937.

At his peak he was as famous for his love of family as we was for the patriotism behind songs like "Over There" and "You're A Grand Old Flag". He wore that love as openly as his love of country, maybe more so.

Mary Ramsey, lifelong friend of the Cohan family, remembers:

"One sweet thing about George M, while his mother was alive, there was never a day went by when he didn't either see her at her apartment, or call her on the phone when he was out of town, he would never miss calling her. She always had heard from him, every day."

Secretary Ida Kohn remembers:

"He was a very gentle person, kind, and very well-mannered, of course... It was so sweet and charming of this man, who was so famous in the American theater, to refer to his father, with such humility, as 'my Daddy'."

Precious little survives from his legendary days on the American stage; for reasons that can be heard in the embedded program below, Cohan only made 7 (!) records of his songs throughout his life. Fortunately, through the hard work of radio producer Joseph Meyers we can hear George M. Cohan in a forum that can truly make us value the treasure that he left us. Mixing hobby and employment, Meyers built a remarkable radio series, called Biography In Sound, dipping into his impressive collection of rare recordings as well that of the archives and news gathering services of NBC. The series came just as radio was following vaudeville into the cultural fog of yesteryear, each week interviewing family, admirers and colleagues of famous statesmen, stars, athletes, poets, writers, from Woodrow Wilson to Babe Ruth to WC Fields to Clarence Darrow to Carl Sandburg to... George M Cohan.

The Biography In Sound episode broadcast on March 5, 1957, offered a stirring tribute entitled "They Knew George M Cohan". The concluding 15 minutes include rare excerpts from an April 1938 dinner, put on by the Catholic Actors Guild on behalf of the great song and dance man.

It was a very humble showman who took to the microphone that special night:

"This gathering here, tonight, it's more of a tribute to the memory of my father than anything else. And of course that makes it doubly thrilling to me..."

For the rest of his speech, I invite you to sit back, dim the lights, and rekindle the flame of the flickering candle of memory, of the relationship between love of family and love of country... and love of life.

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
But should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

Previous Radio Memories posts:

Fibber McGee And Molly: The Scrap Drive
D-Day Broadcasts (from June 5, 1944)
Red Skelton: Vacations
Frontier Gentleman: Gambling Lady
Information Please: Guests Walter Duranty and John Gunther
The Aldrich Family: Cleaning The Furnace
Tom Mix, Terry and the Pirates VE Day broadcasts from May 8 1945
You Are There: The Capture Of John Wilkes Booth
Fort Laramie: War Correspondent
CBS Radio Workshop: Son Of Man
Great Gildersleeve: Easter Rabbits
Dimension X: Time And Time Again
An American In England: Women Of Britain
Cavalcade Of America: Bob Hope Reports
The March Of Time: Feb 10 1938 broadcast
Hear It Now: Coming Home From The Korean War
Escape: Vanishing Lady
Rogers Of The Gazette: Rewinding The Town Clock

American Hegemony

Former Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean remarked in 2003's New Hampshire primary, that America "should be planning for a time when it is not the world's greatest superpower : 'We have to take a different approach [to diplomacy]. We won't always have the strongest military.' "

I was remined of that famous quote the moment I watched this ominous scene:



For all his faults, and despite all the disagreements I have with his policies, I don't get any pleasure out of seeing this done to the President of the United States. It's a sight to sadden the soul. All America is being humiliated in this video, not just its President.


The genius of the American system of government is that it perceived the truth about the people it governs: that Man is a fallen being, with a capacity for evil, and certainly a propensity for error. The checks and balances, the struggle that is involved in getting anything done, is meant to test ideas and the mettle of the mind's they spring from. The notion that Man can become so wise as to not need advice, as to not benefit from the judgment that comes with scrutiny, must surely, almost by definition, be un-American.


Yet when balance and judgment and humility were most needed, where were they? How to keep faith in democracy if its implementation seems to weaken the very system it's meant to uphold? How to keep faith in America?

Why are these modern-day commissars not shaking the democratically-elected President's hand as he moves down this line-up? Are they not supposed to, according to the protocol of the event? If not, why doesn't President Obama know that? If they are deliberately snubbing him, why do they think they can get away with that? What faith do they have in America, and in Americans?


God help the Republic.

8-Year Old Gets Surprise Visit From Hero Home On Leave

A benign conspiracy between mom, grandparents and coach leads to a big treat for a little leaguer in Walkertown North Carolina:

Young Matthew Armstrong knew that Saturday would be a big day, since it was the first day of the season for his Little League team.

But Matthew, 8, of Walkertown, didn't know how big the day would be until an announcer called him up to the microphone during the opening ceremony. She asked him where his dad, Frank Marques, was.

"In Iraq," he replied shyly.

And what message would he like to send to Marques?

"That I love him," Matthew said.

The youngster then got his chance to deliver that message in person.

Frank Marques, back home on a two-week leave from his tour of duty with the Army, emerged downfield and walked from first base toward home plate, where Matthew was standing

Matthew ran out and jumped into Marques' arms, hugging him tight. And the crowd of hundreds applauded.
...

An eventful hug caught on tape.

[Hat tip to Jeff at Voices In My Head]

Gratitude Builds A Home For A Hero

I was reflecting earlier today on how powerful a force gratitude can be; spending a moment to sincerely show how thankful you are is a double blessing, elevating the spirit of both the "giver" and the "getter". A simple "Thank You" goes such a long way towards making the pain of a sore back seem to disappear, when the recipient of your back-breaking labor humbles themselves to show their appreciation for your efforts.

Here's an inspiring example of the renewing power of gratitude, courtesy of New Jersey's Courier Post. It follows the story of U.S. Marine staff sergeant Andrew Robinson, who was paralyzed from the chest down by an IED in Iraq in 2006, and the wonder to behold when someone says, "Thank You":

In his new, specially adapted home courtesy of Homes for Our Troops, Robinson can maneuver his wheelchair through wide hallways, travel up and down from the basement via an elevator, wash dishes and more. An automated hydraulic system allows him to press one button to open the door.
...
It was during a series of hot days last July that volunteers pitched in for a "build brigade" to bring up the frame of the house. Robinson and his wife, Sara, were handed the keys to their new home on Veterans Day.

"I was just crying," she said. "The builder gave us everything we wanted."

The couple, married for four years, previously resided in California, where they rented a regular four-bedroom home, but it was difficult for Robinson to move his wheelchair through narrow hallways or over the thick carpet. The new 2,200-square-foot home has wood flooring, wide doorways and a lift to assist Robinson in getting out of bed and going to the bathroom.
...
Since moving into the home, Robinson has been learning to do various tasks, but he still is limited by a lack of finger dexterity.

"I used to clean a lot, do laundry, iron and clean the kitchen," he said. "I just learned how to make a sandwich. Next, I want to cook an egg."
...
Robinson hopes to go to college in the fall and volunteer with organizations that help other veterans.

A Moment That Every Brother And Sister Can Relate To

Healing The Scars Of An Iraqi Child

Children have a lot to learn about life, but they can also offer a lot to teach. I posted recently about the 7-year old who tried to take a bullet for her mother, and an 11-year old who did much to save his neighbors from burning to death, as two examples.

With great thanks to Vicki, we can learn from another remarkable young person, 6-year old Youssif. Despite living through a nightmare few of us dare to try to imagine, Youssif's faith in a hopeful future has much to teach us older folks prone to despair... providing we have the humility to admit we can learn from a child.

You may already have been following the story; I hadn't, therefore Vicki's thorough coverage (over 20 updates!) made for some intense, emotional reading. Here are the highlights to an incredible story of the healing process underway for a small boy, his family and our own capacity to renew our faith in humanity's ability to choose to do Good.

The story began in January 2007, but the world didn't hear about it until August of that year:

Five-year-old Youssif is scarred for life, his once beautiful smile turned into a grotesquely disfigured face -- the face of a horrifying act by masked men. They grabbed him on a January day outside his central Baghdad home, doused him with gas and set him ablaze.

It's an act incomprehensibly savage, even by Iraq's standards today.
…
"They dumped gasoline, burned me, and ran," Youssif told CNN, pointing down the street with his scarred hands where his attackers fled.
…
Even things like eating have become a chore. His face contorts when he tries to shovel rice into his mouth, carefully angling the spoon and then using his fingers to push the little grains through lips he can no longer fully open.

After the story aired on US television, Americans by the thousands asked, as they do so often: "What can we do to help?"

Shortly after Youssif's story aired Wednesday, the Children's Burn Foundation -- a nonprofit organization based in Sherman Oaks, California, that provides support for burn victims locally, nationally and internationally -- agreed to pay for the transportation for Youssif and his family to come to the United States and to set up a fund for donations.
…

Surgeries will be performed by Dr. Peter Grossman, a plastic surgeon with the affiliated Grossman Burn Center who is donating his services for Youssif's cause.

Donations amounting to over three hundred thousand dollars were quickly collected, enough to allow the family to travel to the US in order to undergo the corrective surgery... arriving on September 11, 2007.

They had traveled more than 7,500 miles to get help for their son, from war-torn central Baghdad to coastal Los Angeles. It marked the first time the family had ever left their homeland, let alone flown on a plane.
"Oh my God, it's so green. Am I in heaven?" Youssif's mother, Zainab, said after arriving in Chicago before the family flew on to Los Angeles where Youssif will be treated.

The healing process seemed to begin just by checking in to their two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in the city of angels..:

There was a television, toys everywhere, and a balcony. A crib sat in the kids' bedroom and the kitchen even had a high-chair so that Youssif's sister would be able to eat with them at the table. For the first time in a long time, the family laughed out of pure joy.
…
Standing on the apartment's balcony, Youssif's father turned to Barbara Friedman, executive director of the Children's Burn Foundation.
"You see America on television, but you never imagine or dream that you will ever be here." He paused, tears in his eyes.
"It's more than paradise."

The family soon got to meet the doctor supervising the series of necessary surgeries, Dr. Peter Grossman:

Perhaps haunted by the pain he suffered in Baghdad's hospitals, Youssif hiccupped back sobs as his father lifted him onto the examination table.
…
"We're going to do everything we can to move forward and to do a good job," he said.

The boy's mother nodded solemnly. "I just want my son's smile back," she told the doctor.

Who knows how many chapters like the following day at the beach remain unreported every day throughout North America. If only more individuals around the world (and within America, for that matter) could see this side to the American people:

Frightened and excited, the 5-year-old Iraqi boy shrieked and laughed as his father lifted him to safety as each wave crashed around their legs. It was the first time either of them had seen the ocean. [They are approached by someone who recognized the family from seeing their story on television.] The "voice" belonged to a member of the Valley Peak church group from nearby Chatsworth -- having a father and child day at the beach.

"We'd like to pray for Youssif and his family. Can you ask if they will accept this?"

The reply: "Of course," said Youssif's mother, Zainab.

The group of Christian fathers and children surrounded the boy and his dad, falling to their knees and locking arms. Youssif and his father stood at the center of the circle holding hands. "They are going to need strength and patience, and God, just put your hand on little Youssif and his family," one of them said, head bowed in prayer. ...

Other beachgoers witnessed the scene, joined in and dropped to their knees -- more than 30 people in all. …

Watching the scene, the outpouring of warmth from total strangers, Zainab wept, tears running down her face."I was overcome with emotion," she said later. "Here in America, people were moved by him. Why not in Iraq?"

The stories on the various surgical operations (12 operations in the past year, with more to come) have some harrowing moments, such as the time complications from one operation led to young Youssif's sheets becoming soaked in blood. But still there was progress.

By Saturday he was bouncing around his room. "I ate," he announced proudly. Although his little head was tightly wrapped in bandages, he was able to open his mouth much farther than before.
"Look, Daddy, my mouth is open! I can fit the whole fork into it and I can take big bites!" he said. ...
Youssif -- who was grabbed outside his home by masked men, doused in gas and set on fire January 15 -- remained ecstatic over little things, like being able to stick his tongue out again.
"I can see all my teeth! I can stick my tongue out all the way!" he said to his dad while waiting to leave the hospital.

As the year went on, we can start to see the amazing capacity for renewal of faith that the family dynamic can provide, as parent teaches child, who then teaches parent, how to survive with grace:

[A]lthough Youssif's parents are exceedingly grateful to be in America and receive the best medical care, one realization that doctors warned about is truly beginning to set in -- Youssif's face will never be the same as it once was.
"Sometimes when he sleeps I just look at him and cry. He used to be so beautiful when he slept," his mother, Zaineb, says. ...
Youssif's parents are coping with what every parent of a child burn survivor struggles with. "They want their son to return to the way he was, and it's hard to know and accept that he won't," says Keely Quinn, the program director with the Children's Burn Foundation who has been helping the family adjust.

…
Youssif's parents are emotionally and mentally spent. They even admit their son has shown more strength throughout this ordeal than they have. To them, it seems their son is winning the battle to overcome his mental and emotional injuries, and he astonishingly seems to take the discomfort of recovery and multiple surgeries in stride.
…
"Youssif is an amazing survivor and tough little guy," Quinn says. "Compared to his parents, at 5 years old, he doesn't have the ability to see down the road how this will affect him. He just knows he will be 'fixed.' His parents have to deal with much more complex issues -- watching their son suffer, their guilt over the attack, and wondering what the next day will bring."

Which brings us to the latest update, from last week, on Youssif starting school:

Youssif began attending an American school [in january], one year to the day after he was so savagely attacked in Baghdad. In a recent letter to those who have helped his son, Youssif's father described the anniversary as a "very hard day" to endure but one that also brought joy.
"But this year, it was the day for another miracle, Youssif's first day of kindergarten. It was a very happy day," Youssif's father said.
…
Youssif is adjusting well to school, able to write out the alphabet and count to 12 without hesitation. He always finishes with an accomplished sigh, wide eyes and a smile so big, it's as if he is making up for the 10 months he was not able to smile.
…
"The kids love Youssif. They get more excited than he does when he learns a new word in English, and they brag about it for hours," the mother of a classmate says.
…
"Now, Youssif eats anything he wants, because he can open and close his mouth," his father said in the letter. "I have begun to see my son's lively spirit return. The surgeries have removed more than just external scars, they are also beginning to remove his internal scars."

A few weeks ago we went to the park and Youssif rode on the merry-go-round. Every time he passed by, he shrieked and laughed and waved wildly to me.

I thought my heart would burst with happiness."

We rarely appreciate how much we have to be grateful for, but we can at least have our eyes opened to the length of the checklist, courtesy of a small boy whose ability to laugh after such tears should do much to teach us how to do the same, as we learn how to live with faith in a positive future. As we read of young Youssif take pleasure in the simple act of eating, and hear of the comfort his parents derive from the simple sight of him smiling, we can re-learn what it means to taste life, and to be grateful for the bounty of blessings we have too long taken for granted.

To make a donation to the fund established for Youssif by the Children’s burn foundation, go here.

[Thanks again to Vicki for her vigilant updating of this story, for otherwise I might never have heard about it.]

God Bless America

I love America.

That's easy to do, since there are so many things to love about the United States of America.

First and foremost I admire America's belief in progress. Just because something is bad now, doesn't mean it will stay bad forever; things can be changed, for the better. Not changed, as in eliminated, or replaced, which is the usual result of most revolutions. America's revolution was to keep, to conserve, the good things they felt they had achieved, and to add to them. To "plus" themselves.

I love Americans (and one in particular: my American wife!). They are optimists. They are creators, they do things, build things. They add to what's already been built. They "plus" our world.

I have faith in America. America is the living example of what faith means: to hold an idea in your imagination, and work to bring it to light. The labor that goes into this act of creation requires some of the strongest brand of courage there is: the courage to admit you're wrong. If what you're building isn't what you were aiming for, you need to be able to see the difference. Otherwise you build a prison rather than a paradise, poison instead of medicine. Few are those with the bravery to dis-illusion themselves as they labor, to strip away fantasy, and bathe themselves with doubts, in order to obtain a clean version of reality. Safer to never question, to never re-think, to never test our faith... safest of all, is to never try to create anything.

As children, every youngster loves to paint, to sing, to draw... and does so, with little inhibition; yet most youngsters reach an age when they learn to see that their graceless stumbling isn't really elegant dancing, their scribbles aren't really great art. And they stop being creative, they put away paint and flute and ballerina slippers. "I'm not really very good now", they say, "that means that I'll never be good... so why go on trying..?" They lose their faith, confusing the short-term present with the long-term future... with eternity.

In their own way, Americans continue trying. They never abandon their faith in themselves, they persevere in their belief they will forever succeed in getting closer to the ideal they hold in their mind's eye, however long it takes. Their country, after all, was built on faith, the faith that their people will continue to become better Americans, and better able to keep re-creating the successes of those who came and "plussed" things before them.

America is a country so full of heroes, a word which to me means, "someone who does what they are supposed to do." A couple of Christmas' ago, I made a short video to express my gratitude for the example that Americans set, generation after generation, in showing just how much goodness there can be, in living life as a human being, created in God's image: as beings capable of imagining better things, and working to bring them to light.






From the macro, to the micro: a video I was lucky enough to find, of a gentleman who, for me, is a typical American: someone who believes in "plussing" their world, and acts on that belief:




May God continue to Bless America.

Remembering our Good Neighbors

Our scenic Stanley Park offers many stimulating sights for the curious visitor, if they have the patience to find them. As we approach Remembrance Day, I thought it fitting to spotlight a Vancouver memorial connected with the visit by US President Warren G. Harding, back in 1923. This marked the first time an American President officially visited his northern neighbor, and the remarks he delivered during that visit have much to say about neighbors, Covenants, and faith. But first, some personal observations.

It is no longer fashionable, it seems, to admire the United States of America, and Americans in general. I lost a couple of new friendships this past summer due to the depth of their anti-American sentiment... or perhaps I should say, due to the degree of my admiration for America. In the heat of our unexpected political argument, I let loose with a heartfelt declaration of my deep gratitude for our southern neighbor, listing off a quick rendition of the accomplishments that mark that country, in my judgment, as the greatest nation in recorded history. My short monologue ended with this summary: “Americans are the most decent and generous people in the world today. I would be proud to be American. God Bless America.”

The two recent university graduates were speechless. After a pregnant pause, one admitted that in all his life he had never heard anyone say the things I had just said. He had never met anyone who admitted they actually liked, let alone loved, America. We agreed to disagree about our views, but it seems that this disagreement entails shunning me for mine. Oh well.

In a world filled with genuine tyrants, not the make-believe bushitler McChimpy boogeymen the left prop up in order to avoid facing the true evil staining the globe today... with recent history filled with awful regimes killing more of their own citizens through repression than can happen in open warfare with neighboring nations, we Canadians are blessed indeed to be neighbors to the United States of America.

The fantasists on the left have as deep a faith in the general goodness of Americans as I do, for the very fact that if you drive around with a "9-11 was a conspiracy" sticker on your car, and don't expect to be hauled off to prison for it, that is a sign that you don't truly believe what your slogan proclaims. Murderous tyrants simply do not allow such freedoms to their subjects... or, as a rule, put up with it from those who live next door.

On Remembrance Day, as we remember our own who have sacrificed so much towards maintaining our continuing freedoms, we should spare a moment to remember the generosity of our American neighbors, and all that they have done, are doing, and likely will continue to do, on our behalf. May God Bless America, no matter what university graduates are told to think.

From the Harding memorial, his speech delivered on that long-ago day, July 26, 1923:

“What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world. No grim-faced fortifications mar our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealthy spies lurk in our tranquil border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper recording hardly more than a simple understanding, safe-guards lives and properties on the Great Lakes, and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest.

Our protection is in our fraternity, our armour is our faith; the tie that binds more firmly year by year is ever increasing acquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens and the compact is not of perishable parchment, but of fair and honorable dealing, which, God grant, shall continue for all time.”

Welcoming Home Heroes

We tend to fill our blog with bad news, as it is important to know the depths of the evil we face in the world today. With truth there can be wisdom, and from that wisdom we shall somehow arrive at the solutions we need to win through to victory against the forces of true evil that are arranged against us.
Every once in a while it's equally important to reflect on the good news that exists as well, for there is still much good in the world. It makes it easier to renew the struggle against evil, to acknowledge the good we fight for, and the humility to be grateful for it. With gratitude comes strength, and the conviction that the good must endure. Such are the seeds for greatness.

Especially in the United States of America. Neighbors, once again you set the standard for greatness, for the rest of us to live up to.

This video isn't very long, but it's long enough to show, yet again, the real source of America's greatness: the moral strength of the Americans who live there.

May God always Bless America with such heroes as Bert Brady.