|
John Walker a Traitor, But to What?
David C. Stolinsky Monday, Dec. 17, 2001
Much has been written about how John Walker, or John Walker Lindh, or Abdul Hamid, or whatever he calls himself today, is a traitor. But a traitor to what? He may well be a traitor to the United States; that is a legal question for
lawyers and courts to argue. And I believe he is a traitor to Western
civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition.
But the real question is this: How can he be called a traitor to something
that he was never a member of, or that he was hardly familiar with?
That is, what did he learn from his parents, his church, his community, and
his schools? Were traditions and deep beliefs handed down to him, which he later
discarded? Or, as now seems likely, were no such traditions and beliefs taught
to him? In that case, is it accurate to call him a traitor? A traitor to what?
One thing I am sure of – I was much more fortunate than Walker. I grew up
in a different America, one so different that today's America sometimes seems
like a foreign country.
I spent the first eight years of my life in a small town in North Dakota.
The latter years of the Great Depression were hard ones, and I recall thin,
pinched faces unlike any seen today, even among the homeless. But there were few
beggars, despite the meager social services. And there was virtually no crime.
My father was a country doctor who made house calls in snowstorms. He was
sometimes paid with a chicken or a sack of potatoes, but he was paid somehow,
despite the lack of health insurance.
Our school was a single building that contained everything from first grade
through high school. Discipline was not a problem. We little kids had to stand
in the corner, and rumor had it that serious problems in high school were
handled by the principal – with a razor strop.
We pledged allegiance to the flag every morning, and on the way home I
passed the sports field and heard the school band practicing patriotic songs. I
could whistle "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" and "Hail Columbia" before I ever
touched a piano. When was the last time you heard those songs? For that matter,
when did you last hear anyone whistle?
Our family moved to San Francisco after World War II broke out, and my
father worked for the Veterans Administration. He had served in World War I as a
private, but he wanted to contribute to the struggle against tyranny. The
"Weekly Reader," a school newspaper, kept us informed of the progress of the war
in understandable and muted language. Radio news was informative, but there were
no violent images for kids to see.
Schoolbooks tended to give a pro-American view of history, but perhaps this
was beneficial. Perhaps kids need illusions. As they grow older, there is plenty
of time to become disillusioned.
Churches and synagogues were filled to overflowing with worshipers praying
for peace, but a peace that could come only after aggressive tyrants were
defeated. I recall no clergy preaching that we should "forgive" Hitler, "love"
Mussolini, or "understand the viewpoint" of Tojo. Nobody claimed, "One man's
Nazi is another man's freedom fighter."
Junior high school kids had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution,
the Gettysburg Address, and the first and fourth verses of the National Anthem.
The first verse comes in handy at sports events, but the fourth is revealing of
our nation's religious origins:
Blessed with victory and peace May the Heaven-rescued land Praise the Power
that has made And preserved us a nation. Many high school and college kids
joined the ROTC and were taught to shoot by sergeants who were often World War
II veterans. Perhaps this helped us form the idea that a gun is a tool for
preserving liberty, not one for robbing a 7-Eleven or killing rival gang
members.
Even after the war, schools and movies left kids no doubt that we were
already members of a special group – Americans – so we felt no need to join
gangs or cults. I recall "Sergeant York," where Gary Cooper portrayed the
pacifist who realized that violent evildoers must be opposed with force, then
went on to win the Medal of Honor.
True, some of these films looked at our past through rose-colored glasses.
No one claims that "They Died With Their Boots On" accurately depicts Custer's
death, but it did show kids that sometimes doing one's duty meant that people
must risk their lives.
No one believes that "Gunga Din" gives an objective view of the British in
India. But it did teach that murderous groups must be opposed by military force
– a lesson we are re-learning painfully today.
Yes, I was luckier than John Walker. He grew up in the San Francisco area
as I did, but it had changed from the one that helped mold my character. He grew
up in a nation that was taught to doubt not only itself, but – even worse – its
ideals.
He lived in a community where patriotism was often viewed as incipient
fascism, and where (at least until Sept. 11) flag-wavers were believed to be
secret Klansmen.
His schools no longer observed Christmas and Easter vacations, but merely
winter and spring "breaks." The significance was lost.
He read schoolbooks that depicted much of American history as racist and
imperialist, and that taught him to view America as a largely negative influence
in the world. No wonder he didn't identify himself as an American, but instead
joined a group that is violently anti-American.
He rarely heard patriotic music on national holidays. He walked home from
school with earphones, so he had no need to whistle.
Memorization was "old-fashioned," so he probably could not recite the first
verse of the National Anthem, much less the fourth. He had no idea of his
nation's religious basis, so he looked for a group that had a religious basis,
no matter how alien the group.
The movies he saw depicted our leaders as scheming warmongers and our
military as fascistic morons. There was violence aplenty in films, rock videos,
and video games, but it was purposeless. Instead of brave soldiers dying for
freedom, he saw mindless people dying for nothing.
Almost certainly, he was never taught to shoot by a veteran sergeant, and
as a child he probably was discouraged from playing with toy guns. Thus he may
have acquired an unhealthy fascination with guns.
He was probably taught that anger is always wrong. Thus he may have
repressed his anger, only to have it emerge in an evil direction.
He reportedly had little exposure to religion, but instead was left to
"seek his own path." Wasn't it the task of his parents to guide him? Would they
have allowed him to choose to eat candy for dinner, or to smoke cigarets as a
child? No, they probably worried about the health of his body, forgetting the
health of his spirit.
But it may have been just as well that he didn't attend church regularly.
He was likely to have heard sermons teaching him to "forgive" Timothy McVeigh,
to "understand" terrorists and murderers, and above all not to be "judgmental."
At some point, religion becomes so watered-down that it ceases to be
nourishing to the spirit, just as watered-down soup ceases to nourish the body.
It merely gives the illusion of being food.
No wonder he didn't identify himself as a Christian, the religion of his
father, or as a Buddhist, the religion of his mother. Instead he joined a group
that is murderously anti-Christian and that destroys ancient statues of Buddha.
Perhaps he was so sick of watered-down religion and watered-down
nationality that he joined the first group that offered him an undiluted
product, even if it was poisonous.
Perhaps he was so tired of trying to find his own path that he joined the
first group that offered him certainty, even if it was a false and evil
certainty.
Perhaps he was so ashamed of belonging to a group that was misrepresented
as harmful that he joined a group that was really harmful.
None of this reduces Walker's legal or moral guilt for having voluntarily
joined a gang of murderers and oppressors. But it does reveal our guilt for
having brought him up in a nation so uninspiring, and a religion so value-free,
that he found them detestable.
If Walker is merely an aberration, we can leave him to be fought over by
lawyers and studied by psychiatrists. But what if he represents an especially
severe case of a common disease – emptiness of the soul and rootlessness of the
personality?
What if there are many little Walkers out there, who share his lack of
identity and hollow core? What if they have not come to our attention simply
because they lack his financial resources and desire for adventure?
We would do well to bequeath our young people solid identities as Americans
and as bearers of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Otherwise, like Walker, they
may fill their emptiness with whatever noxious material they happen to find.
If we give young people nothing worth being loyal to, that is our fault.
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.printcharger.com/emailStripper.htm
Psalm 33:12 says,
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." Archibald Bard
ICQ 83834746  |
