Hitchens had no choice. There are, after all, no atheist saints.
Might I recommend a perfectly marvelous movie, Life for Life (you can read my review of it on Amazon), specifically the scene near the end, where the Polish Communist government is desperately looking for an atheist role model to match Kolbe's heroic charity (and coming up empty).
My father died today. I don't have my own blog, so I'm going to hijack Victor's for the length of this posting to say a few words about him. My father was a difficult person to live with. Mercurial, with wildly unpredictable moods, putting you always on edge as to how he would react to anything. Did I love him? Absolutely - despite always having to watch my step around him.
Did he live a good life? Did he make the world a better place for his having been here? Damn straight he did! Had he done nothing else of value in all his 88 years, what he (and a couple of hundred other young men) accomplished on November 10, 1942, would in a just world earn for him our eternal gratitude and what the Russians rightly call Vechnaya Slava (everlasting glory). On that day, with the rest of the crew of the destroyer USS Dallas, my father sailed 12 miles behind enemy lines under continuous fire up a technically unnavigable river (the Sebu) in French Morocco during the US invasion of Northwest Africa (Operation Torch) to secure the airfield at Port Lyautey in support of the entire invasion effort. They had to cut through an antisubmarine net at the river's mouth, sail right under the guns of enemy shore batteries, squeeze between scuttled vessels placed to block their passage, and trade fire with artillery doing their damnedest to sink them, to reach their objective. Along with the simultaneous battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein, Operation Torch turned the tide of war against the Nazis, paving the way the Allies' eventual victory. In one day, my father did more good for humanity than I've managed to do in a lifetime, and nothing can take that away from him.
2 comments:
Hitchens had no choice. There are, after all, no atheist saints.
Might I recommend a perfectly marvelous movie, Life for Life (you can read my review of it on Amazon), specifically the scene near the end, where the Polish Communist government is desperately looking for an atheist role model to match Kolbe's heroic charity (and coming up empty).
Jezu ufam tobie!
My father died today. I don't have my own blog, so I'm going to hijack Victor's for the length of this posting to say a few words about him. My father was a difficult person to live with. Mercurial, with wildly unpredictable moods, putting you always on edge as to how he would react to anything. Did I love him? Absolutely - despite always having to watch my step around him.
Did he live a good life? Did he make the world a better place for his having been here? Damn straight he did! Had he done nothing else of value in all his 88 years, what he (and a couple of hundred other young men) accomplished on November 10, 1942, would in a just world earn for him our eternal gratitude and what the Russians rightly call Vechnaya Slava (everlasting glory). On that day, with the rest of the crew of the destroyer USS Dallas, my father sailed 12 miles behind enemy lines under continuous fire up a technically unnavigable river (the Sebu) in French Morocco during the US invasion of Northwest Africa (Operation Torch) to secure the airfield at Port Lyautey in support of the entire invasion effort. They had to cut through an antisubmarine net at the river's mouth, sail right under the guns of enemy shore batteries, squeeze between scuttled vessels placed to block their passage, and trade fire with artillery doing their damnedest to sink them, to reach their objective. Along with the simultaneous battles of Stalingrad and El Alamein, Operation Torch turned the tide of war against the Nazis, paving the way the Allies' eventual victory. In one day, my father did more good for humanity than I've managed to do in a lifetime, and nothing can take that away from him.
Rest in peace, Dad.
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