July 7, 2002
A True American Hero Was Remembered by a True American Zero
by Paul Moore
Dear Buzz:
The other day when the current occupant of the White House paid his respects to Ted Williams my thoughts turned to the stark contrast between these two men and the lives they have enjoyed. Teddy Ballgame, up from humble beginnings, with steely discipline and total dedication, makes himself arguably baseball's greatest hitter of all time. When he hit for an incredible .406 batting average in the 1941 season he reasoned that it was the least he could do if they were going to pay him $30,000 a year. And after he had firmly established himself as a baseball star, he placed himself in harms way in service to this country without a whimper. He was shot out of the sky during his tour in Korea and barely escaped a crash landing with his life.
Meanwhile, the Court selected Commander-in-Chief, could not even muster the love of something other than himself, to sit at an airbase in Alabama during the Vietnam War. The lazy self-absorbed frat boy who now serves as this country's Chief Diplomat has never found the discipline learn basic facts about the world we live in. It's actually news to him that there are Black people in Brazil. The man appointed the land's top law enforcement officer looks back on a life that would disqualify him as a New York City police officer, or most any other job in law enforcement.
Now Georgie Boy fancies himself a baseball man because his daddy's friends once gave him the Texas Rangers to play with. The team provided him cover while he spun his insider trading gains from Harken into an $18 million profit. And, oh yeah, he built a T-ball field on the White House lawn. But when they told him of Ted Williams death the other day he should have been shamed into silence by the life of such a man. Of course he wasn't so what we had the other day was, in effect, a true American hero being remember by a true American zero.
Paul
Moore
Miami Lakes, FL
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