Thursday, May 21, 2009
Some things are worth dying for
Linda Whitlock
Recent columns
- Seeing racism where it's not
- Sanford could still be a hero
- Skeptics or traitors?
- School freedom is elusive
From the RoundTable blog
Is there anything you think would be worth giving your life for or committing your life to?
That was one of the journal questions I gave my students this past semester. Journals, in English teacher parlance, are informal essays students write, most often, in response to some kind of prompt. That's the case with my classes, at any rate.
I enjoy reading my students' journals because it's a way to get to know them. Students are quite open in their journals, and responses to questions like the one above give me a peek into their souls.
From their journals, I learned, among other things, what they think it means to be an educated person, whom they consider to be heroes -- often Mom, Dad or a grandparent -- the characteristics they look for in a leader and for whom or what they would be willing to give their lives.
How they define an educated person is a little scary. But for the most part, as their tributes to their parents and grandparents demonstrate, their journals reveal them to be good-hearted, caring young people.
Which makes their response to the above question all the more interesting.
Nothing, most said -- other than their families. Some mentioned God or Jesus. Country and/or freedom made few, if any, lists.
No surprise there.
When we were working on their research papers, I used reactivating the draft as a practice topic. Almost to a student, they were opposed to the idea. Military service, they agreed, was best left to volunteers. It was fairly obvious they felt little obligation to be among them.
What accounts for their cavalier attitude?
For one thing, they take this country and its freedoms for granted. And no wonder. Freedom is the air they've always breathed. That we could easily lose that freedom likely never crosses their minds. Like so many other things, freedom is appreciated most by those who don't have it.
In a speech in Detroit on June 23, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "[T]here are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." King's speech was written before inclusive language required the use of "human being" or some other gender-neutral designation instead of the generic "man." But it's clear he's talking about all people. The things "so dear," "so precious" and "so eternally true" he references are the freedoms my students, and the rest of us, take so much for granted.
When King gave that speech, being willing to die for a worthy cause like freedom was still considered a noble thing. Not so today. In part because of our experience with terrorists who believe they're dying for a worthy cause, we've come to regard such willingness with suspicion.
The problem with terrorists, however, isn't their willingness to die for their cause but their willingness to deliberately take innocent lives with them. Their actions shouldn't obscure the truth in King's words.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as King and say that a person who hasn't found something worth dying for isn't fit to live. But I would agree that something vital is missing from such a person's soul.
Monday is Memorial Day. It's the day set aside to honor those who, like King, did believe that certain causes, freedom included, are worth dying for and, also like King, gave their lives to prove it. If not for them, my students might not have the luxury of choosing not to serve their country.
If all goes well, my family and I will be spending this Memorial Day celebrating my niece's high school graduation. You, no doubt, have holiday plans of your own.
Whatever your plans, though, take some time to pay homage to the memory of those who secured our precious freedoms with their sacrifice and blood. And if you get the chance, thank one of those volunteer soldiers who, even now, are making sacrifices so that my students and the rest of us can continue taking our freedom for granted.
Whitlock, a Roanoke Times columnist, is an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem.
