Searching for American Heroes

Kennedy misses the point. It is precisely because they are struggling to transform entire countries, societies and cultures that the leaders of Eastern Europe look to the great statesmen and Founding Fathers of America for their inspiration.

What those men did, from Thomas Jefferson to Martin Luther King Jr., is exactly what President Vaclav Havel of Czechslovakia, Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Poland and others are attempting today.

And, as the only group of people to forge a lasting, successful destiny out of an intolerable political and economic situation, who else can these leaders look to?

On the other hand, the mass appeal of leaders such as Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and ANC leader Nelson Mandela of South Africa in America is due as much to their own charisma and vision as it is to the lack of an American leader of equal measure. I mean, we are speaking of visionary captaincy, aren’t we? The last three visionary captains from America--President John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.--were all assassinated. To date, no one has stepped up to fill that void.

It is no wonder that we have a widespread inspiratory malaise here in America. For those of us who know more than just the names of our Founding Fathers, a number shrinking with alarming rapidity, it is not enough to have the hallowed names and venerable ideals invoked by our elected representatives.

What we require at this point in our evolution as a nation are leaders who will stand on the shoulders of those great men and, by virtue of their vision, lead us into the future. It is a future which looks increasingly like the beacon of freedom we have always said America is, especially in light of the current abandonment of communism.

MICHAEL S. FIELDS

Woodland Hills