We Need Another Hero

To the Editor: 
It is without question that we are living in a time unlike any other in history. Looking back over the six decades that I have lived, I can’t help but feel saddened and dismayed at what we have come to accept as normal and appropriate.
In the name of freedom, we have embraced immorality, contempt, treason, violence and the list goes on. There was a time in this land, not so long ago when men of great integrity and humility led our nation. Likewise, our “heroes” were men of similar quality.
As a small boy, I remember watching a movie about WWII. It was the true story of a young man from Texas named Audie Murphy.
Murphy was a young man who joined the Army during WWII while still in his teens. By 21, he had been promoted through the enlisted ranks and into the rate of second lieutenant and had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
He would go on to become the most decorated soldier in the history of the U.S. military. Throughout his service in the war, he sent 90 percent of his pay home to an aunt to support his siblings.
This was a man, an American hero. Someone that a father could point to and tell his son, “When you grow up, you need to be a man like that.” Murphy was a hero, and he was our hero.
As a young boy, playing “Army” with other boys my age was a favorite pastime. Before waging our attack on the Germans, we would draw straws to see who would be Murphy and lead the platoon to victory.
We were emulating our hero. We wanted to be like him.
I remember with great clarity an afternoon my mother picked up my brother and me from the old brick schoolhouse in Rio Grande. Classes were over and it was time to go home.
As we took our seats in the car, mom told us that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Texas. At that point, it was not known if he was dead or alive.
We got out of the car and told the other kids. I can still see the shock and horror on their faces.
Kennedy too had been a hero of the war. While captain of PT-109, he led his crew to survive being stranded in the south Pacific and avoided capture by the Japanese naval forces.
He was our president and he had been shot. The following day for the first time in my life, I saw an American flag at half-mast.
My parents explained the reason for it. It is an image burned into my mind as if it were a branding iron.
Many times our little group of would-be heroes drew straws to see who would be Capt. Kennedy, leading his crew against the Japanese. These were men we could look up to with respect.
They were leaders, self-sacrificing men with grit to bone. We were proud to emulate them as boys and to walk in their footsteps as men.
Today, who do our children look up to? Immoral men who embarrass our nation before the world? Rappers whose lyrics glorify cop killing? Criminals and murderers who are celebrated in the media? Video game and film characters that portray the evil one as the victim or good guy?
It is no wonder we are in the condition that we are in. Dear Lord, we need another hero… and we need him soon.