What I believe....

I was watching a special on TV recently about the police and firemen that helped dig for the bodies in the rubble of the World Trade Centers. They interviewed several of them. They interviewed one priest who stood outside the entrance of where the workers would go in day after day, 12 hours a day. The first few days in the pouring rain. At first they didn't allow him to go in, but he got to know everyone so well as they would stop and ask him to pray with them on their way in or out, so they let him in to help.

Each story each man told broke my heart. They felt compelled to find the bodies of their fallen comrades. One can only imagine the emotional and physical strain they must have gone through. Yet, they got up every day and did it.

I don't imagine that we will ever hear all the stories of heroism the day of 9-11. Sometimes circumstances bring out the best in us. A part of us that we may not have even known was there. I remember the story of the man who carried his friend who was handicapped all the way down dozens and dozen of floors. We have read of those who went back in the towers, knowing how dangerous it was, to save others. Who among us is that selfless?

There are so many hero' among us. Sadly though, they just never run for office.

I saw a commercial for a horror movie recently and I thought of Anne Frank from The Diary of Anne Frank. The commercial showed a young girl with her ear pressed against a wall. On the other side of the wall in the dark was a ghoulish monster with his ear pressed against the wall on the other side. I thought of Anne Frank because her life was like that. She lived behind the walls while monsters lived outside of it.

This is basically why I support this war on terror. If we don't fight the ghoulish monsters then we will live in fear behind the walls of America, always listening and wondering if the monsters will come again.

What I loved about Ann was the way she just lived her life despite the horror of her circumstances. The line in her book that is most quoted is too perfect. It's almost as if it had to have been written by a novelist. But I've never seen it quoted it full, so I will do so here because I have always shared her feelings:

"It is a wonder that I haven't dropped all of my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe people are really good at heart."

I'm like Ann that way, despite all evidence to the contrary, I still believe in the goodness of mankind.

Many who read this blog might think that I admire Republican politicians. I do not. I admire no politicians. I believe that by the time a person, Republican or Democrat, gets to Congress or the Presidency, he has sold out so many times there is very little left to admire.

I believe in Republicans for one reason and one reason only. This. The Republican platform. It is a mission statement really. You see, I believe in the mission, not the man. We voters have the power to push a politician to vote in a way that leads our country in the direction we wish it to go. And that is the only power we have. But it is of vital importance. This is how the Republican platform of 2004 begins:

Ronald Reagan

He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things a person could be guilty of.
He believed in the Golden Rule and in the power of prayer.
He believed that America was not just a place in the world, but the hope for the world.
As Ronald Wilson Reagan goes his way, we are left with a joyful hope he shared.
May God bless Ronald Reagan and the country he loved.

Many on the left here should read through the platform, I think you might be surprised at the depth of compassion and aid to global poverty that is there. And there is, of course, my main issue, the sanctity of an innocent child's life in the womb. The understanding of which is necessary in my view, to be the kind of leader I wish for.

My point is this. The heros of this world are little girls who write beautiful words despite a horror we can't begin to imagine. The heros of this world go into burning buildings to save people they have never met. The heros of this world love those who don't deserve love. These are our heros, not the politicians. Let's don't' expect them to be our heros.

Let's just expect them to continue to make this country great and compassionate.

I have been one small voice. And I know that a million small voices can be very loud. Continue to be loud, but don't forget that it takes more than a voice to make a difference.

It takes becoming a hero.