In Praise of Unsung Heroes

Such as historical movers and shakers, modern tea party-goers, truth-telling "swift boaters," et al.

"Some there will be who have no memorial . . . But their righteousness hath not been forgotten."
— Ecclesiasticus 44:9-10

As a wet-behind-the-ears movie reviewer I discovered an obscure book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), by then-relatively unknown novelist James Agee. Non-fiction, utterly so, his 428-page magnus opus depicting realism was prefaced by soul-etching photographs of dirt-poor cotton tenant farmers in the Depression era as taken by award-winning Fortune photographer Walker Evans.

Fooled by the title, I wondered why praise famous men? Don't they get enough adulation? Why not celebrate the unknown, unheralded, giants of the earth such as O.E. Rolvaag described America's prairie pioneers in his epic novel about Norwegian immigrants? Why not, say, ordinary heroes, those who get little or no recognition.   

Soon enough I discovered the irony of the title. Agee's subjects were hard-working, one-and-two mule tenant farmers in Alabama during the New Deal. I was drawn to Agee by his incisive film reviews in Agee on Film (1958) but this to-be landmark book, Agee's "Let Us Now Praise…" was the stuff of real life, an infinitely powerful, dignified portrayal of the dismal lives of three farm families in 1936.

They were salt-of-the-earth, hardworking, God-fearing, America-loving sharecroppers, working the soil for bare subsistence wages, their wives and daughters dressed in flour sacks from which, empty, they obtained "Depression" glassware premiums for their tables. When I think today of non-famous persons (not to be confused with Infamous) I think of others also not celebrated, or cheered, including but certainly not limited to:  

– The lone Chinese student protester, singly defying a bristling-with-guns tank in Tiananmen Square, just before the massacre there in 1989. He stood bravely, untentatively for freedom, exemplified by a make-shift papier-mache statute, looking like Lady Liberty, which Beijing students called "Goddess of Freedom." Such is the allure, the human need, for freedom, that puts lives on the line. 

– Ordinary folks who drop everything, drive miles, clutch homemade placards, participating in media-dissed and most Democrats-despised "tea parties." What is it about dissent that's not to like in America? All this deeply-motivated protest, civilly, constitutionally, to call attention to the excesses of their government, its spending sprees, its compression of personal liberties. Tea party-goers assembled by the uncounted millions are not celebrated but ignored or ridiculed by the near and far Left — which is to say, most news media.

(Note: Fox News is a notable exception. Let Us Now Praise Fox News for truth-telling?  Ta da!)    

– A shipyard electrician in Poland for whom fame finally arrived, Lech Walesa (1943-). With the support of freedom-loving, underrated Pope John Paul II, his fellow countryman, Walesa spearheaded the unions' Solidarity Movement, proving the power of being right can defeat the most sinister of tyrannies. 

– Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), famous in his field (nuclear physics) but not far beyond. Exiled in his own country, the Soviet Union, for speaking out, he challenged his government's illegitimate premises of raw power over the people, and lived to see the Berlin Wall torn down as President Ronald Reagan had pitched to "Mr. Gorbachev," validating right-thinking, freedom-embracing ways. Let's see now? Who is most responsible for winning the Cold War? Humm.   

– Toussaint L'Overture (1743?-1803) led the largest slave rebellion in history. It ended slavery in a former French colony, now Haiti, thence throughout the British empire. Abolitionists were born, and the very name coined. That event set the stage for Lincoln's actions to free slaves sixty years later during the Civil War.    

– Hungarians, yearning for freedom in 1956, inspired by Prime Minister Imre Nagy (1896-1958) and General Pal Maleter (1917-1958), among other heroes. Both were executed by the Soviet Union in 1958 after show trials. Their bid to gain a measure of freedom for their country was betrayed by the United States giving only lip service (again) to freedom-loving peoples.

– Baghdad mobs pulled down the statute of Saddam Hussein. They trod happily on it with their feet, a mark of disrespect, while Saddam's Baath party still persecuted freedom-lovers. Credit native Iraqi translators and interpreters for the coalition's armed forces, who bravely faced death every day, being forever nameless, unsung heroes in their nation.

– Countless millions who died or fled tyranny of the murderous monsters such as Stalin, Hitler and Mao. And millions more, unborn.

– Whitaker Chambers (1901-61) warned of home-bred communists, such as Alger Hiss.  His reward at first was doubt, filled with revulsion and disbelief of the Left, until truth prevailed. His landmark autobiography, Witness (1952), stands as an eternal flame for democracy. Worth re-reading if you've not been there lately. (Chambers was Bill Buckley's favorite pithy quote-giver with good reason. He speaks, sometimes in dour language, truth for the ages.)

– Raul Wallenberg (1912-?) perished in a Soviet prison after saving the lives of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. As Swedish general counsel, he was captured in 1945 by advancing Soviet troops and imprisoned, then died mysteriously behind the Iron Curtain. Even today, old Soviets will not fess up. Raul WHO?   

– William J. ("Wild Bill") Donovan (1883-1959) founded the OSS, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency. Because he was a Republican, FDR kept intercepts of Nazi and Japanese top secret messages from him. Despite this severe political handicap, his agency's behind-the-lines efforts shortened World War II and served as the foundation for today's CIA.

(Aside: Little-known (at least today) "Wild Bill" Donovan is justifiably described by the title of his powerful biography, The Last Hero (1983). Check it out. It's an engaging page-turner by Anthony Cave Brown, a supremely talented Brit historian; it's a terrific read, like a Vince Flynn novel, only all the stories are terribly, historically real.) 

– Vlacek Havel (1936-), playwright, poet, first president of the Czech Republic, arch critic of communism, known first-hand from his being under its yoke. His free-verse poetry makes freedom absolutely sing. 

– Harriet Tubman (1822?-1913) gained freedom for herself and runaway slaves, as a link in the Underground Railroad, and as cook, scout and spy for the North in the Civil War. She was an early suffragette for women and for blacks like her. One bright lady, a sturdy, freedom-loving soul, now merely a footnote in history. 

– August Belmont (1816-1890), banker and business owner, he financed the Civil War effort for President Lincoln who called on his generosity to fund the Union's military efforts. Today this horse-racing afficionado is recognized only by a New York racetrack's name where one-third of the Triple Crown is run. August WHO?

– Unsung military heroes for all times, in all of America's wars, most notably the Greatest Generation of World War II. Those engaged in the present war in Afghanistan are virtually ignored by media, except in caskets coming home, just as those in Iraq were ignored in that war just won, although news media are loathe to admit the win. (Shhh. Because their enemy, "W," is vindicated?) And let's not forget the aging veterans of Korea and (gulp!) "my" war, Vietnam. We, all of us who served proudly in uniform, are observed at least one day in May, to flag-waving and speeches.

– CIA and FBI people, preventing further terrorist attacks, are lightly denigrated by the current president and his ideological pals. Terror-busters' tools, such as "wiretapping," and methods of intelligence-gathering, are compromised by, among others, the New York Times, and the present administration.  Yet the silent, mostly covert American warriors are expected to protect us. Go figure.  

– Business and industry leaders pay enormous taxes, and their companies pay and collect taxes for federal, state and local governments, not charging them a penny. At the same time, their companies, large and small, offer health insurance, free or at low cost, to bona fide workers, as perquisites of the job. How fair can fair be?

(Note this: Captains of industry, providers and preservers of economic freedoms and opportunity, our John Galts, are butts of criticism from the green-with-envy, unproductive Left. For some business leaders, salaries are about to be slashed by a statist "pay czar's" decree. Can socialism in full be far behind, with its attendant drop in human freedom?)

My personal list of the Unsung could go on, and on, but let's not forget those vilified still by party-line Democrats and their ideological kinfolk, the news media. Let us praise truth-tellers who unveiled John Kerry's warts, his dishonesty, on the eve of the 2004 election:

– Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth. Truth asserted itself, relentlessly, in their TV spots, and on TV talk shows. Good Thing, too. It likely made the difference in 2004.   Turncoat John Kerry called us 'Nam vets war criminals, lopping off ears "in the fashion of Genghis Kahn" among other atrocities. To think this weasel, who never revealed his full military records, took "early out" three months into a 12-month  'Nam PCS tour of duty,  this shill for far left-liberal "causes," once ran for president. Boggles the mind still.  Does honesty count for anything in politics? (Don't answer that!)    

God bless the patriotic "swift boaters" and POWs doing time in Jane Fonda's North Vietnam prisons. They served their country twice, in the no-more Republic of Vietnam, and then in denying Senator Kerry the job of running the country. With him at the helm, for one thing, Iraq would have been lost. God knows what else. And yet the "swift boat" guys are not only NOT praised by media and by the insufferable Left, but instead are denigrated, and put down. What price their patriotism?  

That's all, folks. Any illustrious, unsung heroes you'd like to add to my list, by individual name or by group? Have at it.

Editors' note:  For late-comers to the "swift boat"  story, it is told here in Larson's five-year old recap, "Swifties Sink the USS John F. Kerry."