From St. Maximillian to Lizzo
How did we get from there to here?
I LOVE heroes. I’m not talking about Superman or Popeye. I mean real life heroes that give us role models and goals. When I think of true heroes, I think of World War II and those who acted with bravery and no thought of their own safety or consequence to themselves. I think of those men and women, often of great faith, who transported children in carts and baggage and barrels from the assured misery of the Jewish ghettos into neutral territory. These actions most assuredly saved the lives of many children while putting their own lives into jeopardy. I think of people like Father Maximilian Kolbe (later beatified to St. Maximilian Kolbe) who, after being arrested for printing Catholic material in Poland, was transported to Auschwitz and traded his life for the life of a condemned Polish prisoner who was to be put to death in the infamous “Death Block”. I think of Joe George at Pearl Harbor who disobeyed direct orders to cut a line to the burning, ill-fated USS Arizona, saving the lives of six men who otherwise would have died in that conflagration. Because of his willfulness in disobeying orders, Joe’s medal for saving the lives of these men would be withheld until after his death in 1996. (Both of these heroes will be written up in separate articles at later dates.) But these are heroes in every sense of the word.
In current times, I don’t see a lot of heroes but could assign that designator to a few folks I see who buck the system consistently and do it very well. Mike Rowe is one of those. He speaks his mind which is always interesting and often goes against the grain of the elite and powerful. Most recently, he set aside his own voice and printed an article by Charlie Cooke that spoke for him against the likely illegal and certainly unpopular college loan bailout proposed by the biden administration. For some reason, and I don’t know what it is, Rowe holds his own against the cancel culture. Huzzah!!
Others who fit this mold, at least in my mind, are those doctors who signed The Great Barrington Declaration and also Alex Berenson. These skeptics who opposed government actions directed towards fighting Covid have been hounded and canceled and have suffered great opposition at every turn. But they were and are right. They are still being canceled today and government misinformation and hypocrisy still abounds. Yet they stand their ground. They will be the heroes at the end of this battle. Dr. Sherry Tenpenny will join their ranks. But unless one goes out of their way to read, research and dig in, no one will ever know about these people. The MSM will never report on how insightful they are and were and how their opinions should be front and center in our news reports. But this is just me.
That brings us to……Lizzo. From what I can glean from recent headlines, this woman embodies all that is good and wonderful and heroic in mainstream America today. She is, for one thing, the Entertainer of the Year. She is on her way to perform in my city of Houston on October 26 and, if I am to believe the website, TICKETS ARE SELLING OUT FAST!!!!!! I have the option of buying a ticket for $70 (basically behind the stage) or $792 (yes…almost a house payment!!) in front of the stage in the mosh pit. She seems to be a hero to many people. And, I mean, why not? Her lyrics are so flowing: “Where da hell muh phone, muh phone, where da hell muh phone”. I mean, it’s just so very elegant. And she speaks fundamental truth in accepting her music award as she charges her adorers to “make changes to laws that are oppressing us.” She never says which laws those might be nor how they might be oppressing anyone. They never do. But how she can believe she is oppressed and still ostensibly worth $12 million is anybody’s guess. But hey, that victimhood seems to work. And yet, she is adored. She is heroic. She is a multi-million dollar victim-hero. How does that happen?
So where does this trip from World War II to today leave us? We’ve gone from Christians smuggling Jewish kids to safety at great risk to themselves, to St. Maximilian Kolbe trading his life for another, to Joe George disobeying direct orders to save half a dozen lives to the great victim Lizzo. Hmmmm. And the Great Barrington Declaration doctors, Dr. Sherry Tenpenny and Alex Berenson still being canceled.
It’s been an interesting trip, but, as Bugs Bunny would say, “I should have taken that right turn at Albuquerque.” I think I will save my $792 and keep reading Mike Rowe and Alex Berenson. Hmmmm….. I need more coffee or maybe it’s 5:00 somewhere.