The Impact of Media on My Life
2-14-26
For over twenty years I have been taking notes on History. For the most part, those notes are complaints about issues affecting humans that other humans cause. The political arena is highly emphasized. Forever dwelling on the dark and evil side of humanity necessarily ignores the other side, humanities triumphs.
Books
My interest in History was spawned in the third grade after receiving my first history schoolbook. I read it all in short time. For some reason I was totally fascinated with true stories of people and major events in time. I have not lost that interest; in fact, it has resulted in the publication of ten political diaries.
What I read in the history books mainly detailed major events that featured the principal players involved, Columbus, Lincoln, the American Revolution, the Civil War against slavery, etc. My appreciation for heroism might have been established from those readings; right along with the Catholic Bible. The Bible also helped develop my sense of heroism, righteousness and compassion.
It was not unusual for me to read a book a day by the time I was in third grade. The library was just across the street and about a hundred yards further. I got caught up with the Hardy Boys adventure books; they telling the stories of the sons of a Detective father. From these I got my first lessons on right and wrong as the two teenagers successfully, and frequently, helped their dad solve crimes. So taken with that collection, as an adult, I bought all fifty-two from a publisher. When making a move from Illinois to Florida the collection was donated to our daughter’s elementary school. I’m not so sure such red-blooded American boy adventures would be welcomed currently as our American educational system is not concerned with education but indoctrination.
In my teenage years I was highly interested in books about war. Morbid curiosity? Perhaps. But in those books also, heroism and sacrifice became benchmarks in my understanding of humanity. Books such as, The Great Escape, The Horse, The Longest Day, The Civil War, The First and the Last, Johnny Got His Gun, All Quiet on the Western Front, Saving the Breakout, Ghandi, and others I can’t remember. These writings solidified the patriotism I held for my country and reinforced the belief that the United States was, without a doubt, the most Christian, sacrificing and compassionate nation on the planet. If you study current events globally, that sentiment is continually reinforced.
One of the books I read in college was, “The Religions of Man.” This was eye-opening for a man raised Catholic, as it detailed the ideologies of all the world’s major religions. The upshot of this book led me to believe that no human being could speak for God, a position I hold to this day and what caused me to detail my own beliefs in my book, “God – I’ll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours.”
Other books about one man, Ralph Moody, as expressed in the first of several of his, revealed the true story of an adolescent taking on the role of head of the family. His inventiveness and willing to work, in the days when the Depression darkened our country, should be required reading in every American school. He did not want welfare; instead, he set his industrious mind for great achievements. The youth of today might marvel at this.
When living and married in Illinois, I caught on to Earle Stanley Gardner, the author of the Perry Mason murder and mystery books. I also absorbed books written under his pen name of so and so. In all, I read about forty of his works and delighted in the courtroom ballet of a criminal defense lawyer. Gardner’s characters instilled in me some mental agility, as this seems to describe the Perry Mason character. Till this day, I still watch the Perry Mason episodes on disc.
Two books I did not read completely were Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose’ and Thomas Sowells’ “Basic Economics.” These two were used for reference in forming my belief that Capitalism is the only proper way to maintain a nation. Capitalism is an empowerment of the individual; Communism does the opposite and if you check the news, from unbiased sources, is the false ideology pushed by one political ideology today – as it removes individuality and forces one to be a pawn of those in control.
My reading is diminished now due to vision loss. But the memories of what I absorbed still lingers in the far corners of my mind.
Television
“Blood Brothers”
It was an episode of the TV series MASH in which Patrick Swayze guest starred. He portrayed a wounded soldier that the doctors discovered had luekemia. While his main concern is for his severely wounded buddy, camp Priest, Fathe Mulcahy, frets anxiously over an impending visit from a church Cardinal.
The Priest ends up spending the whole night talking to Swayze and arrives late to the mess hall tent church ceremony. In an impassioned speech, he decries his own thoughtlessness versus the soldiers, concern for “a brother!” This portrayal by actor William Christopher was one of the most astounding and enlightening of my life, making me think more about other and less about myself.
“The Kicker”
On the comedy show “Raymond” we are typically treated to the odd behavior of a seemingly dysfunctional family. In this episode, Raymond’s father, Frank, catches a record-setting football kicked as a field goal. He holds the ball for ransom, but Raymond brings the kicker and the kicker’s dad, offering $500 for the ball as opposed to the announced $10,000. Frank relents and hands the ball to the young kicker who thanks Frank; then turning slowly, offers the ball to his Dad for being his inspiration. The tenderness between Dad and Son nearly brought me to tears.
Movies
I watched the movie, “Ghandi” long before reading his biography. While the book was revealing the movie of him, starring Ben Kingsley, stirred emotion in me. The scene took place in South Africa were the young Mohandus Ghanda is a lawyer, acting to protect the rights of Hindus and Muslims working there and the British government’s practice of discrimination against them.
Speaking before a packed auditorium, Gandhi says, paraphrasing: “They may arrest me. They may beat me to death. And then, they will have my dead body – not my obedience!”
That scene truly stirred my passions about history, governments and human tragedies.
In the movie, “Micheal,” John Travolta plays a somewhat crude angel come to earth to open a man’s heart to love. In one scene, after an antagonistic approach to his female reporting companion, he is visibly seen falling in love with her. Leaving the restaurant to retreat to their individual rooms in the motel, actor William Hurt and actress Andie McDowell come to touch one another’s hands, then kiss, then determine to spend the night together. When their first kiss occurs, the music, “Feels Like Home,” the lyrics of “something in your eyes, makes me want to lose myself, makes me want to lose myself, in your arms.”
The scene and the music fit so well together I began to tear up. Never have I seen such a scene about falling love shown so passionately.
Music
Many great songs have filled my life. Two of the most inspirational are patriotic. The words to our National Anthem also inspire me. If more folks could imagine the courage of the inhabitants of Fort Monroe while the British Navy pounded it relentlessly. I envision Francis Scott Key, aboard and held prisoner on a British ship, watching the night long bombardment, and by dawn’s early light, our flag was still there.
The song that stirs the most emotion in me is “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Sorry pacifists, but when defending your home, family and country, such words are justified to stir one’s heart into action. When a Pope visited America some decades ago, the Marine Choir feted him with this song. The words, “as he died to make me holy, let us die to make men free,” were changed to “as he died to make men holy, let us LIVE to make men free,” that line bursting forth from the singers gave me goosebumps.
Politics (perhaps and Art to some)
When John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country;” it stirred a passion in me that I have held as a love for my country. So much information from the same political party he was a member of, is totally opposite, instead, encouraging people to not provide to government, but to survive off of government. This clarifies the upheaval displayed daily in the media. Democrats now espouse being a “Taker” and not a “Giver.”
There are countless other things that have dramatically affected me, such as, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” Words, music and video scenes can drag a tremendous emotion from me depending on how it is depicted. The mentions above are just a few and demonstrate how the acts of another can so deeply impact my life.