The tone of civility and respect must change for the better in the United States, and it had better change soon for all of our sakes.
Yesterday, April 8 2008, was a proud day made sad when the Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously in a White House ceremony and the Mainstream Media, by and large, did not see fit to show up, en masse, to honor and cover one of our Nation's valiant heroes, Petty Officer Michael Monsoor, USN.
The Medal of Honor, our Nation's highest military award, was initiated by Congress in the great Civil War to honor the most unselfish and courageous acts of the bravest of the brave, acts that go above and beyond the call of duty. This medal has nothing to do with politics. To deliberately choose to ignore this ceremony honor this man is a grievous wound upon the National Unity and a horrendous insult to those who sacrifice their lives and limbs for this country!
To my mind, it seems rather obvious that the MSM, by their omissions and commissions in covering the Iraq war and its heroes, neither supports our National war effort nor our Troops. The phony-baloney, rock and roll, "We support the troops but not the war!" mantra is exposed for the empty rhetoric that it is. If this hollow chant were indeed true, why wasn't the MSM there in full force to honor Petty Officer Monsoor, his parents, and all of our War dead by covering this event in print, on radio, and on television with the dignity it deserved?
I was reading earlier today a Cal Thomas opinion piece, "It's civil debate, not civil war," where he stated that the divisions in this country have not been this pronounced since the years immediately prior to the American Civil War. Mr. Thomas mentions that historian Robert W. Johannsen, in his book The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, draws a stark comparison of the political culture of the 1850s and today's level of political discourse.
Those familiar with American History may offer up many issues as causes for the War Between the States: States' Rights; the expansion into versus the denial of Slavery to new States; the Northern egalitarianism and industrial might versus the Southern gentility and agrarian lifestyle; Regional Trade Issues, Arrogance versus Hubris on both sides; Yankee Puritanism versus Southern Evangelicalism; the Right to Secede from the Union being co-equal to the Right to Join the Union; the different Regional Traditions, Ways of Speaking, Notions about Education and Taxation, even Manners and Accents. The list could go on and on.
Students of this era will also recognize that Lincoln was no staunch abolitionist. While he opposed slavery in an intellectual and philosophical sense, Lincoln arguably saw his primary mission as preservation of the Union, period. The elevation of rhetoric, the increasing incivility on both sides at that time, and the unwillingness to work out a national solution led to a National Blood-letting, a conflagration of unbelievable scale and proportion, and the loss of a generation of boys and men, sons and fathers. In the end the Union was preserved, but Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Must we always learn the hard way?
It seems that we want to continue down that road called Hard Way.
Senator John McCain has made it clear that he wants public civility in this election campaign. John McCain has been quick to disavow uncivil or untoward remarks by people outside his campaign. yet despite his example, left-wing talk show host, Ed Schultz, at an Obama Fundraiser called John McCain a "warmonger." Senator Jay Rockefeller just yesterday all but called McCain a murderer for flying missions and dropping bombs in the Viet Nam War. This is simply shameful. These incidents just as simply requires personal repudiation by Obama ... the civil thing to do. Yet, in both of these incidents, Barack Obama failed, in person, to repudiate such statements. Instead Obama seems to have preferred the less civil option and used a campaign spokesman to do his bidding. He must do better than that.
So where are we going? When some would call John McCain, a seriously disabled war hero and Presidential Candidate, a "warmonger," where are we headed? It seems to me easy enough to stop this slanderous nonsense. Whatever disparaging remarks that might be said in a cloakroom should remain in the cloakroom. Where there are facts, speak to the facts. If you don't like a candidate, speak to their observed character faults without impugning their humanity. Where there are issues of disagreement, make your case for change. This election is about today and tomorrow, not about Bill Clinton, George Bush, or Herbert Hoover.
This media snub of a White House ceremony honoring a fallen Navy SEAL with the Medal of Honor seems to me a good place to start turning things around. If we cannot all come together to celebrate the life of a Fallen Hero, how can we continue to claim the legacy of freedom for which this man and other men and women like him most unselfishly fought and died.
Jesus said that man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his fellow man.
I think honoring the sacrifices of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines past and present is a good and noble place to begin the return to civility.
William R. Mann
Lt. Colonel, USA Retired
