My Valentine's "Alternative"
The second week of February is always a poignant, indeed special, one for me. Not because of Valentine's Day--certainly not. In fact, I wear black each February 14, not in a self-piteous show of a single man's bitterness--well, maybe partially!--but rather in symbolic mourning for my lost, or at least unfound, love. Sappy and old-school, isn't it? Anyway, the reason this week is important for me can be summed up in the birthday commemorations of three very special individuals in my life and leanings: California Governor and 40th U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911), British novelist and Ebenezer Scrooge creator Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812), and yes, my ideological mentor and favorite historical figure, our 16th President--and Great Emancipator--Abraham Lincoln (today, February 12, 1809). While it is a heavy emotional and psychological load to consider all three of these men thoroughly in the same few days, it is also a very affirming and uplifting task as well, one I don't really mind performing. (Can't tell I'm a history nerd yet, can you?) Here are a few brief, succinct thoughts I have about all three:
Ronald Reagan - He was--and is--the father of modern-day conservatism, the man who renewed America's patriotism and faith in itself...the Great Communicator, the redeemer of the GOP, the first man to serve two full terms in his own right since FDR. Almost every earthly, political conviction I hold I can trace back to him and his values--an appreciation for smaller government and free enterprise, a need for a strong volunteer military, a reverence for the laws of God and country, and a deep compassion for every human life, especially those yet unborn. I may have differed with him on certain issues, as is inevitable with any leader, but I will cherish his memory until I too leave this globe.
Charles Dickens - He is my all-time favorite author, and is quite possibly the second most brilliant and effective crafter of the English language (behind Shakespeare, of course...no shame in being called second there). One could argue he was the greatest novelist of all time, writing not just one but more than a dozen classics with indelible characters: A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, David Copperfield...to name a few. There is something remarkable about picking up a Dickensian work on a winter's eve and letting it warm, indeed touch, your body, heart, and mind. Many in our modern, cynical world have begun to spurn Dickens for his sentimental, spiritual literature, but I say God bless him even now! I can trace much of my compassion for the sick and weak, the young and even unborn, to his influence. Thanks, Boz--I owe you one.
Abraham Lincoln – The tall, scrawny, rugged-looking prairie lawyer…born in a rural Kentucky cabin, raised on a dirt-poor Indiana farm, ushered into manhood by way of failure and adversity in the fields of New Salem near Springfield, Illinois. My hero, my icon, my inspiration—the noblest, brightest, most singular leader we have had here in America. The Founding Fathers were a mountain range of impressive intellects and historical figures amassed together—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Paine, Henry—while Lincoln was a Colossus, a monolith, of leadership and courage rising from the vast plain of mediocrity and evil around him, both before and after his Presidency. Without him, our great future leaders—Roosevelt, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Reagan—would have had no bridge back, no real connection, to that original distant, glorious birth of freedom embodied by the Declaration and the Constitution. It took Lincoln to remind the entire nation, not merely the South, that freedom must be universal and unfettered, and that a great republic’s true union depended entirely on liberty. A valuable lesson then, and even more so now, in this increasingly troubled and complex world. Lincoln’s towering soul, like his body in life, continues to watch us…let’s not disappoint him, whether it be in Baghdad or Kabul or here at home.
So that's my humble, yet somehow lofty, alternative to Valentine's Day. Take it or leave it... Unless you're a magnificent nerd like myself, I'm guessing you'll choose the latter. But show some empathy, or at least pity; for those of us without a love or a life, such "commemorations" must suffice. For now, that's fine with me. Such men and women in history can never get enough attention, as far as I'm concerned.
Ronald Reagan - He was--and is--the father of modern-day conservatism, the man who renewed America's patriotism and faith in itself...the Great Communicator, the redeemer of the GOP, the first man to serve two full terms in his own right since FDR. Almost every earthly, political conviction I hold I can trace back to him and his values--an appreciation for smaller government and free enterprise, a need for a strong volunteer military, a reverence for the laws of God and country, and a deep compassion for every human life, especially those yet unborn. I may have differed with him on certain issues, as is inevitable with any leader, but I will cherish his memory until I too leave this globe.
Charles Dickens - He is my all-time favorite author, and is quite possibly the second most brilliant and effective crafter of the English language (behind Shakespeare, of course...no shame in being called second there). One could argue he was the greatest novelist of all time, writing not just one but more than a dozen classics with indelible characters: A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, David Copperfield...to name a few. There is something remarkable about picking up a Dickensian work on a winter's eve and letting it warm, indeed touch, your body, heart, and mind. Many in our modern, cynical world have begun to spurn Dickens for his sentimental, spiritual literature, but I say God bless him even now! I can trace much of my compassion for the sick and weak, the young and even unborn, to his influence. Thanks, Boz--I owe you one.
Abraham Lincoln – The tall, scrawny, rugged-looking prairie lawyer…born in a rural Kentucky cabin, raised on a dirt-poor Indiana farm, ushered into manhood by way of failure and adversity in the fields of New Salem near Springfield, Illinois. My hero, my icon, my inspiration—the noblest, brightest, most singular leader we have had here in America. The Founding Fathers were a mountain range of impressive intellects and historical figures amassed together—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Paine, Henry—while Lincoln was a Colossus, a monolith, of leadership and courage rising from the vast plain of mediocrity and evil around him, both before and after his Presidency. Without him, our great future leaders—Roosevelt, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Reagan—would have had no bridge back, no real connection, to that original distant, glorious birth of freedom embodied by the Declaration and the Constitution. It took Lincoln to remind the entire nation, not merely the South, that freedom must be universal and unfettered, and that a great republic’s true union depended entirely on liberty. A valuable lesson then, and even more so now, in this increasingly troubled and complex world. Lincoln’s towering soul, like his body in life, continues to watch us…let’s not disappoint him, whether it be in Baghdad or Kabul or here at home.
So that's my humble, yet somehow lofty, alternative to Valentine's Day. Take it or leave it... Unless you're a magnificent nerd like myself, I'm guessing you'll choose the latter. But show some empathy, or at least pity; for those of us without a love or a life, such "commemorations" must suffice. For now, that's fine with me. Such men and women in history can never get enough attention, as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Douglas Schrock at 8:33 PM
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