Now Hear This: Life different in times of war
So, America, how’s the war in Iraq for reality TV? That’s as real as it’s gonna get!
Real bullets ? real fast ? real dead!
Please, do me a favor Hollywood, never again use reality to describe your programming. The television concept of survival we’ve witnessed the past few years has been about a game with a catchy name. It’s not anymore! The men and women we see on today’s reality TV are not smiling. They’re not making jokes. War is always serious business.
When I turn my TV on these days to watch the war, (that even sounds too much like a game show), the drama is constant, and fast-paced. The pictures are graphic and gripping.
You can’t watch the war without emotion. You switch from network to network, cable to cable in search of encouraging news about our progress in Iraq, and every morning we’re back in front of the TV hoping nothing disastrous happened to our men and women in uniform overnight.
Some things this war has taught me:
• I refuse to have a bad day. When I witness the hardships our soldiers are having to endure, I am profoundly impacted by their sacrifice.
• My problems are mundane compared with the individual conflicts faced by our people in service to their country.
• I pray more often during the day for people I don’t even know. I thank them for laying it all on the line for people they don’t even know.
• I feel guilty whenever I do something so American like pull into a fast food restaurant, shop at the mall or talk about a vacation, while my fellow countryman are fighting for my freedom to do all those things.
• I see a police officer, and feel it’s my duty to tell him or her how much I appreciate their service to our community.
As I write this column, in my office at home, I can’t help but see the winged statue of an Eagle that sits on a table nearby. It reminds me of the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell. That Eagle also reminds me of “the secret” – the secret of America’s survival. A secret because it cannot be described, it has to be discovered. It is the “Eagles Secret” as told by David McNally in his book by the same title.
The eagle stood proudly on the edge of his nest. As he gazed at the mountains and valleys before him, the eagle’s thoughts returned to his childhood. He could remember clearly his first attempts at flight. Time and time again he had fallen out of control toward the rocks below. Time and time again his ever-vigilant mother was there to save him.
The eagle recalled asking her, “What’s wrong? Am I not as powerful as you have led me to believe?” His mother’s answer would provide for him one of the most extraordinary moments of his life. Sensing he was at last ready, she revealed the eagle’s secret.
“All eagles were born to soar. It is why we were created. Our power, however, comes not from what we can see, it is in the unseen. It is the wind, not our wings, that lifts up to the high places. It is our vision, not our eyes, that makes us rulers of the skies. But, above all these, it is our spirit, not our speed, that leads us to be strong and free.”
And, about the light that spreads across my desk from the table lamp. It also is a reminder in these days of uncertainty, anxiety and trepidation.
He said to the man who stood at the gate of tomorrow, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And, he replied, “Go into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light, and safer than a known way.”
(Hope Hines is a television sports reporter and a Nashville personality.)