Heroism

Those of us who have experienced combat know that, usually, acts of heroism are as much a matter of circumstance as intention. It is rare that we are privileged to witness an heroic act that is totally a gesture of moral conviction. To act on such moral conviction in the love of your country is the highest form of courage and patriotism.

Charles Liteky did not need to prove his heroism. No holder of the Medal of Honor need ever defend his courage. His action in returning his award in order to protest what his country is doing in Central America is an act of pure patriotism and bravery that rivals any performed on any field of battle anywhere.

I pray that those of us with only more ordinary levels of courage can take heart by his actions and stand a little firmer in our insistence that our country must remain a nation of law and morality. When we abandon our own ethics to serve a short-term end, we are no better, no different, than the evil that we oppose.

Vietnam taught us that it is possible to do wrong in the pursuit of right. Even the best motives will never justify wrong actions. War is always a failure. When we allow ourselves to be dragged down to that level, we lose. It is only through the loving strength of people like Charles Liteky that we as a nation can find alternatives to war and still maintain our freedoms. JOHN C. MUIR

Santa Barbara