|
WARS 2004 |
 |
|
GORDON GREB |
 |
The Deja Vu Theatre
 |
His pep talk aided Reagan;
Could he help Democrats?
By GORDON GREB
of TheColumnists.com
Usher: Right this way, please, and take your seats. You’re just in time to see the professor in another of his starring roles, playing Knute Rockne, the Fighting Irish football coach of Notre Dame who inspired an entire nation of young boys in the l930s. (And don't forget: They became Tom Brokaw’s 'Greatest Generation'!)
(Film title and credits have already run)
SOUND: chorus of Notre Dame fight song.
SCENE: opens in a football
locker room):
 Coach Knute Rockne (Gordon Greb) gathers players around him for his mandatory pre-game pep talk. |
ROCKNE: Okay, you guys, listen up! Sure, we played hard, but in this Big Game of Politics you never give up because you gotta get in there and win one for--ah, the Gipper--who isn’t a Ronald Reagan, or Bill "Comeback Kid" Clinton, but a regular guy just like us. This is your Coach Knute Rockne with a rousing pep talk for all you dispirited guys, because some of you knuckleheads think the game is over.
Yes, men (and women, too, if you like the rough and tumble of politics), we suffered a real blow in the results of the 2004 presidential election--a hard-fought campaign by Kerry-Edwards on behalf of the Democratic Party, resulting in our side losing!
Our natural first reaction is shock and unbelievability, but if we stop long enough to reflect--seeing this in the context of a larger view--it's an event in life we must take in stride. Now is the right time to pause and review everything we've ever learned.
Here's something which may help--“The Story of the Chinese farmer.” See how this man deals with life and learn from him. I encountered this story from a friend who runs a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco and I've had a version of it framed on my wall. Here's how it goes:
A Chinese farmer, his wife, and young son lived comfortably in a small house, planting and harvesting, plowing with a single horse, and living happily in the countryside.
With high hopes for the future of his boy, he taught the young man how to ride the horse till one day there was a terrible accident, which injured the youth seriously.
Wife: "Oh, this is terrible," she cried. "Husband Won Chi, what shall we do?"
Farmer: "Nothing, good woman. Be patient. Something good may come of this?"
Time went by. The crippled
young man still lived with his parents and helped around the
farm. One day they looked out the window and saw military horsemen
approaching and when they arrived, the officer in charge saw
the young man near the stable.
Chinese Calvary Officer: "Hey, you, young man, I am here to conscript men just like you. Get on that horse and ride. I am here to take you away with my army."
Farmer: "Sir, I beg you not to take my son. Look. Can't you see? He is handicapped and surely won't ride well."
When the Chinese cavalry officer took a second look at the youth, he turned his head and shouted," You are right, farmer. So we go. He is of no use to us"
Wife: (on seeing this) exclaims: "Oh, Won Chi, this is wonderful."
Farmer: "Think not, old woman. Something bad may come of this."
A few days later the son, for whatever reasons of his own, decides to leave to find himself a wife. He says farewell and and goes to work for a neighbor who has a pretty daughter.
Wife: "This is terrible, Won Chi, what shall we do?"
Farmer: "Nothing, woman. Let him go. Something good may come of this?"
One day the farmer goes outside to start his work and discovers two horses are now living in his stable--not one. Apparently a new animal had simply wandered in.
Woman: "How wonderful,
Won Chi. A second horse has freely come into our possession and
now we are rich."
Farmer: "No woman. Be careful how you think. Something bad
may come of this."
A few months later a stranger rides up and sees the second horse.
He roars: "That's my horse in your stable. You are a horse thief, farmer, unless you give him back to me. Do so immediately or I'll report this to the authorities." The farmer agrees and loses the second horse.
Wife: "Oh, we are poor again--only one horse."
Farmer: "No, woman. Wait. Something good may come of this."
Several months go by and one day the farmer hears strange noises in the stable. Looking out, he finds to his surprise that the mare has given birth to a foal. Now the farmer and his wife own two animals--no longer one.
Well, this story goes on and on. Make up your own scenario, because the lesson is simple. When the hour seems to be the blackest, "Something good may come of this."
One should try to put the presidential election 2004 into this kind of perspective. Think of the Democratic defeat as a temporary political setback from which we should benefit. Better yet, place it in the context of history, comparing this political result with the calamities of great wars, which suffering peoples have had to survive time and time again.
As Scarlett O'Hara said
in "Gone with the Wind," "Tomorrow is another
day." Think of the gallant and defeated survivors of the
Confederacy under General Robert E. Lee in 1865, returning to
their shattered and war-torn homes after being defeated by the
victorious Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox,
Virginia. They had had to console themselves and soon they began
telling their friends and neighbors, "The South shall rise
again."
Well, somehow or another the Election Map for 2004 looks like they did exactly that! If this is our Appomattox, then gird your loins, lift your spirits, and say, because you mean it, "Something good will come of this!"
Wait a bit, dear friends,
loved ones and true believers. Remember the lesson of the Chinese
farmer.
Now go out there and win one for our Alma Mater--Our Good Old
Electoral College! Remember what Horatio Alger taught you in
this week's homework assignment--his successful strategy book,
"Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward." And remember what
you've learned about overcoming power in Frank Capra's movie,
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"! Fans will long remember
my exact words if you go out there today and win one against
the Gypper!
SCENE: (A spirited team runs out, but one player handsome enough to be a movie star stops and stares back at the coach in disbelief, thinking he didn't hear right.)
ROCKNE: "No, Ronnie! Being gypped is being cheated. That's the opposition we're up against--the team coached by the Gypper. Wouldn't it be be stupid of me to say, 'Win one for the Gipper ' Who would ever understand the meaning of that?"
Your Virtual Knute Rockne, Gordon Greb
MUSIC: Roaring crowd and band music SCENE: Credits superimposed over football team players till “The End.”
©2004
by Gordon Greb. The illustrations are made in TheColumnists.com
mad graphics lab from the bits and pieces of various things,
including the 1940 Warner Bros. film "Knute Rockne, All-American."
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Gordon Greb . To send an
email, click here: talkback@thecolumnists.com
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |