Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

His father's heartbreaking letter written December 23rd and published in yesterday's Washington Post explains the decision in terms even a child can understand.  "It was just a matter of simple kindergarten arithmetic. Four means more than one," he wrote.    As a result of this extraordinary act of bravery above and beyond the call of duty, Ross McGinnis has been recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor.  It is a rare honor.  A mere 125 Medal of Honor recipients currently walk among 300 million Americans.  That's where the 1 in 2 million number comes from.  

When you read what happened, there is no doubt Ross McGinnis deserves to join the hallowed ranks of such legendary Americans as Buffalo Bill, Charles Lindberg, Audie Murphy, and Douglas MacArthur.   Some are suggesting Congress should award the medal without the traditional two-year waiting period.  I hope they don't.  The President on behalf of the Congress awards the medal.  Maybe I'm petty, but I don't think Mr. Bush should be allowed to taint this decoration by touching it.  There is too much blood on his hands.

Reading his father's letter, I couldn't help but think of the line from the Bible, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish."   Thus, I was not completely surprised to see his father's thoughts went to that same line.  "Our Bible tells us that God gave up his only son to die for us so that we may live. But Romayne and I are not gods. We can't see the future, and we didn't give our son to die, knowing that he will live again. We gave him to fight and win and come home to us and marry and grow old and have children and grandchildren. But die he did, and his mother, dad and sisters must face that fact and go on without him, believing that someday we will meet again. Heaven is beyond our imagination and so we must wait to see what it's like," he wrote with poignant clarity, faith and grace.    

As I finished the letter, another line came to me, "He died for our sins."  The more I think about that, the more I think that is true.  He certainly died for the sins of deceit perpetrated by those who sent him and his brothers into that meat grinder.   But Mr. Bush and his minions did not do this alone.  This brought to mind another line, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  Young Mr. McGinnis answered that question without flinching and offered himself in sacrifice.  I suspect his father was mindful of that point when he wrote, "The choice for Ross was simple, but simple does not mean easy. His straightforward answer to a simple but difficult choice should stand as a shining example for the rest of us." I agree.  

Mr. Bush and his kind should be compelled to answer the question as honestly as young Mr. McGinnis.  In a very real sense, Mr. Bush has already answered the question.  President Bush has the gall to speak to us of sacrifice although he clearly does not know the true meaning of that word.  By all accounts, his idea of "sacrifice" is to forego sweets as long as we are at war -- how abstemious of him.   There is no doubt in my mind that the mark of Cain will be upon him for the rest of his days, and his family will be tainted by that bloody mark for generations.  

But as guilty as Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and their kind are, they are not alone.  Tomorrow the Democrats will take control of Congress.  Whether we like it or not, we now own a piece of this war.  We can no longer be content to blame the demented ideologues of this administration for the catastrophe unleashed among the Iraqis in our name.   We can no longer wait for someone else to step into the breach and rescue the men and women sent into this pointless war.  If we are to honor Ross McGinnis properly, we must follow his example to the best of our abilities.  We have to make the hard choices and put honor over expedience.  If we let this madness continue, we are complicit.

That's why tomorrow I'm going to wear one of my old ties to remind myself that being honest, simple and good never goes out of style.  When they swear in the new congress, I'm not going to celebrate any political heroes.  The real heroes are the men and women who make the hard choices and do the right thing, even when no one is looking.  They are not captains of industry.  They are not the images the media packages for us to applaud.   They are the guys who worked The Pit until their boots melted and now lie sick and dying from lung ailments and cancer.  They are the people who tend to families left behind.  They are people like you and like me.  

If you have been waiting for the cavalry to ride over the hill, you can stop.  Take a good look around you.  We're it.  It's that simple.

We cannot fill his shoes, but we can follow in his footsteps.