Is It Heroic?
Mlb.com has posted a nostalgic piece on its Chicago Cubs website, recalling an act that took place thirty years ago today. It was 1976, and the country was celebrating its two hundredth anniversary. The summer Olympics would be underway in Montreal soon. The Vietnam War had wound down, and a governor little known outside of Georgia was about to make a successful run at the presidency.
The Cubs were playing the Dodgers in a day game in LA, when two young men jumped onto the field in center, between innings, with the intention of burning the American Flag. No one knows what they were protesting, if anything at all. Quite possibly they were just pranksters or trying to impress some girl.
Rick Monday, the Cubs centerfielder, a player who had a lot of promise that remained for the most part unfulfilled (as is the case with most baseball players), ran over to the two and snatched the flag off the ground, as one of the young men was about to ignite it with a match.
Monday, it should be noted, was a Marine reservist; that is to say, he spent six or so months in training and then attended meetings for a number of years when he wasn't playing baseball. In short, he avoided the "Vietnam experience" by being in the reserves. He's now a broadcaster for the LA Dodgers and generally liked by his peers and the ballplayers.
The article on the Mlb.com site refers to Monday's act as truly heroic. This caused me to wonder how his act stacks up against that of my cousin, who was a young liuetenant in Vietnam when his battalion was over run, leaving only him and the radioman. My cousin called in airstrikes on his own position until the enemy were repelled and the wounded could be rescued. (He and the radioman were awarded the Silver Star for bravery.)
Or how the act compares to one by my friend Steve during the Tet Offensive, when under heavy attack Steve, a tank operator, manned a stretcher, carrying the wounded even though he had been wounded himself by shrapnel, in the back, for more than two hours, with what was left of his shirt dripping blood and despite the appeals of the medics for him to stop and receive aid. (He was awarded a purple heart and a Bronze Star.)
Or how the act compares to that of the helicoptor pilot and his crew who lowered their gun ship between a crazed American company bent on massacering a whole Vietnamese village and saved the lives of more than twenty women, children and old men (My Lai), and then were ostracized by the Army and their country for doing the morally correct thing.
I am sure you can think of many acts that stack up against Monday's flag rescuing adventure. I don't deride Monday for what he did. There were no babies to save from drowning in center field that day. He did what he believed was the right thing to do, but surely we can think of other acts to hold up for youth that speak of greater deeds.
Mlb.com has posted a nostalgic piece on its Chicago Cubs website, recalling an act that took place thirty years ago today. It was 1976, and the country was celebrating its two hundredth anniversary. The summer Olympics would be underway in Montreal soon. The Vietnam War had wound down, and a governor little known outside of Georgia was about to make a successful run at the presidency.
The Cubs were playing the Dodgers in a day game in LA, when two young men jumped onto the field in center, between innings, with the intention of burning the American Flag. No one knows what they were protesting, if anything at all. Quite possibly they were just pranksters or trying to impress some girl.
Rick Monday, the Cubs centerfielder, a player who had a lot of promise that remained for the most part unfulfilled (as is the case with most baseball players), ran over to the two and snatched the flag off the ground, as one of the young men was about to ignite it with a match.
Monday, it should be noted, was a Marine reservist; that is to say, he spent six or so months in training and then attended meetings for a number of years when he wasn't playing baseball. In short, he avoided the "Vietnam experience" by being in the reserves. He's now a broadcaster for the LA Dodgers and generally liked by his peers and the ballplayers.
The article on the Mlb.com site refers to Monday's act as truly heroic. This caused me to wonder how his act stacks up against that of my cousin, who was a young liuetenant in Vietnam when his battalion was over run, leaving only him and the radioman. My cousin called in airstrikes on his own position until the enemy were repelled and the wounded could be rescued. (He and the radioman were awarded the Silver Star for bravery.)
Or how the act compares to one by my friend Steve during the Tet Offensive, when under heavy attack Steve, a tank operator, manned a stretcher, carrying the wounded even though he had been wounded himself by shrapnel, in the back, for more than two hours, with what was left of his shirt dripping blood and despite the appeals of the medics for him to stop and receive aid. (He was awarded a purple heart and a Bronze Star.)
Or how the act compares to that of the helicoptor pilot and his crew who lowered their gun ship between a crazed American company bent on massacering a whole Vietnamese village and saved the lives of more than twenty women, children and old men (My Lai), and then were ostracized by the Army and their country for doing the morally correct thing.
I am sure you can think of many acts that stack up against Monday's flag rescuing adventure. I don't deride Monday for what he did. There were no babies to save from drowning in center field that day. He did what he believed was the right thing to do, but surely we can think of other acts to hold up for youth that speak of greater deeds.
posted by Jim | 12:12 PM
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