In keeping with this month’s series of weird news-related blogs, I wanted to share one of the most bizarre articles I’ve ever read. It was about superheroes. Real ones.

Seriously. You can click here to read the article about Master Legend and the many other members of the Justice Force. Reading the article, I wavered between being stunned, awed, and splitting my sides laughing. These guys have a super-heroic stance, special vehicles, and various gadgets to help them in their never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the protection of their local communities.

I guess it was bound to happen eventually. The new millennium has seen cloning, the supercomputer of the Internet, and even discussions about the potential for time travel and teleportation. Superheroes were bound to emerge at some point. And this isn’t just a fly-by-night fluke. This is a growing movement, according to another Times article on the rising surge of superheroism.

Of course, they sound a little crazy. And inspiring. And everything in between. These people actually put on masks and wander the streets searching for a crisis to solve.

And they even solve some! It might be as mundane as handing out bottles of water to strangers, as a random act of kindness. It might be as practical as raising money to help a struggling tenant keep his apartment. Or it might actually involve phoning up a police commissioner – or whoever answers the phone and will listen – to give a helpful crime tip. In the case of Master Legend, a police officer confirmed that he receives occasional contact from the mysterious hero, which has actually led to some arrests. Zowie! These superheroes are actually fighting crime! Take that, you bad guys, you!

Whether you feel the need to don a mask and cape – which I would not encourage most people to do – you can be a hero just like those “real” superheroes. All you have to do is step out of your comfort zone to help someone in need.

When I was a kid, I saw an inspiring film, “Hero at Large”, about a struggling New York actor, Steve Nichols (John Ritter). Always ready to help friends with acting job leads or memorizing lines, Steve’s own career seems destined for failure. His latest job involves dressing up as a superhero named Captain Avenger in order to promote a new movie. Engrossed in the role, Steve seems to be the only one who “gets” it. That whole idea of crusading for truth and justice, and “looking out for the little guy”, as he puts it.

Or maybe he’s just a little crazy.

In any case, this idealistic young guy buys some milk at a corner grocery store on his way home from work, when three kids try to rob the owner at gunpoint. Using his costume to surprise them, Steve confronts the small gang and frightens them off. Soon, headlines are filled with the local crime that was foiled by the true-life “Captain Avenger”.

Life gets crazy for Steve after that. He soon finds that the city of New York is  hungry for a real-life hero, and they want him to do more. So he does.

But when some slick publicists discover his identity and urge him to start staging his acts of heroism to inspire the masses, Steve gives in to their pressure. A few random acts of phony heroism later, and Steve is exposed as a fake. No one takes any further interest in his belief that anyone can choose to be a hero.

Until the end. After Steve has effectively been run out of town, he passes by a burning building. Hearing that a child is still trapped inside, he races in from the rooftop, wearing his crimefighting suit once again. Police and firefighters watch and wait as “Captain Avenger” retrieves the child and drops her to the airbag below.

But before Steve can drop to safety himself, another explosion blasts from behind him, and he disappears from view.

A moment later, a construction worker witnessing the scene announces, “I’m going in!” Ordinary people rush in, one by one, to the dangerous blaze. A few minutes later, they finally emerge, carrying a hobbling “Captain Avenger” to the safety of the waiting crowd.

You don’t need a fancy name or a costume to be a real hero. You just need to step out when people need you. How often do we see a crime or emergency situation, and just drive past? In today’s society, it’s easier than ever before to call the authorities to come and help someone in trouble. How often do we see that a friend is hurting, but we’re too busy or too uncomfortable to give them a shoulder to lean on?

If more of us rescued one another from life’s everyday crises, perhaps fewer people would feel the need to wear capes.

 

Find more reviews of Hero at Large at amazon.com!

 

“… the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”

Enemy of the People

 

Once in a while, the right thing to do is also the popular thing to do. But that’s rare.

The last two competitors for the 2009 Miss USA Pageant were asked some questions to determine their merit to wear the crown. Perez Hilton, a gay activist, asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, whether she felt that more states should legalize gay marriage. To his horror, she said no.

“I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there,” she answered. “But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you.”

Whether this cost her the crown might never be known. We do know that it cost her the support of former friends in Hollywood, as well as that of her publicists, who found her comments embarrassing and insulting. Perez Hilton found her response so insulting that he, in turn, called her the nastiest of names in his personal blog.

How dare she, anyway? How dare Carrie Prejean answer a loaded question with an honest opinion, instead of giving people what they want? How dare she disagree with what everyone else thinks?

This brought to mind a play, written in 1882, called Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (later adapted by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s), in which Dr. Thomas Stockmann becomes harassed by his own community for reporting that the city’s vital public baths are contaminated. Stockmann’s brother, Peter, the mayor of the town, refuses to believe Thomas’ claim, and accuses him of trying to frighten people and somehow use this influence to take over the community. When a town meeting is called to discuss Thomas’ concerns, he finds that all his former friends and supporters have given in to public pressure, and are now denouncing his claims as false. Soon the entire community is on the side of the mayor, to the point that they won’t even allow Thomas to argue his case.

About fifty years ago in the United States, homosexual practice was a crime. Now it’s all but criminal to disagree with it. It seems that society can change its mind, but Carrie Prejean is not allowed to speak hers.

After all, homosexual lobbyists fought hard and finally persuaded the public at large to accept their sexual orientation. They kept lobbying and fighting to the point that people would not only accept their ways as normal, but would also bring endless pressure to bear on anyone who disagreed with that view. That brings us to today.

When I was in high school, I was fully supportive of people choosing to have a homosexual relationship. After I read what the Bible says about homosexual practice, I changed my views. I wasn’t promoting some bigoted view against certain people and using God’s name to justify it. I simply read what God says about it, and trusted God on the subject instead of trusting the changing views of society. I can’t depend on politically correct society to tell me what practices to accept or what I should believe.

A large part of the polarization on this issue has been due to its misrepresentation by both Christians and homosexuals. Despite what one man promoted at football fields, God does not hate homosexuals. Christians and homosexuals need to be reminded that homosexuals were created in God’s image, and God loves them.

However, like any parent, God can love his created children without condoning their choices in life. People must also learn that disagreement with someone’s life choices has nothing to do with whether or not you accept that person, or can be friends with them. Whatever you may believe, you need to understand that the Bible condemns homosexual practice as a sin, but that God, though the sacrifice of Christ, embraces all sinners and calls them to receive new life, and then to change their ways. It is quite possible for a person to be both a homosexual and a Christian, but it is not acceptable for such a person to pretend that God condones homosexual practice. Any Christian, dealing with homosexuality or any other sin, is a work-in-progress, and must submit his life and behavior to Christ, as he strives to become more like Him. Left to our own natural impulses, we will all do whatever we feel like.

God is not, never has been, and never will be politically correct. Long before our presumed age of enlightenment, the Bible addressed the issue of homosexuality, and had no praise for it as a lifestyle choice. It also discounted the idea that homosexuals do not choose this lifestyle, but were simply born that way. God created Adam and Eve as separate individuals, who could only be sexually fulfilled and complete in a relationship with one another, what the Bible describes as “becoming one flesh”. The Bible describes the act of sex as a unifying one, that joins a man to a woman in a permanent way. That is why the Bible mandates that sex should be reserved for marriage – a permanent relationship – and why it reserves it solely for a man and a woman, with the ability to “be fruitful and multiply”, not for two people of the same gender.

People can complain all they want that Christians hold a biased view for believing what God says in His Word. Homosexuals can attend church all they want and continue to practice homosexuality, pretending that the Bible condones it. But the Bible is crystal clear that homosexuality is not what God intended for anyone to practice, and He certainly never intended for those who practice it to pressure their communities into accepting it as right.

In the play, Thomas addresses the townspeople, sharing with them a fresh insight on the behavior of the masses.

“The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population — the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it’s the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it’s the fools that form the overwhelming majority.”

In Arthur Miller’s adaptation, Thomas gives examples, asking whether it was right for the majority to crucify Christ, or for the church to persecute Galileo for claiming that the earth rotates around the sun.

When someone tries to pressure you to be “politically correct”, remember that what they’re describing is really a high school popularity contest for adults. Like Dr. Thomas Stockmann, everyone must subscribe to the majority opinion if they want to be accepted. If you don’t go along with the crowd, the crowd’s most popular enforcers will put you in your place.

But be advised: they will rarely do it with information or intelligent debate. They will enforce their opinions on the masses by calling you nasty names to discredit you. Names like “homophobic”, “gay-basher”, or even “prejudiced”, pretending the issue of accepting or rejecting homosexuality is about the person, rather than the practice. If they manage a website, they might call you something even worse, while justifying their own obvious hatred of you and anyone else who dares to disagree with them. Meanwhile, those so-called friends and the professionals who promised to promote you will shut you out, and they’ll be the first ones to kick you while you’re down. So take warning: if you dare to think for yourself, instead of letting the masses rule your thought processes, you’ll be next on the politically correct hit list. Right after Carrie Prejean.

How dare she, anyway? Didn’t she realize that the majority of politically correct judges wouldn’t vote for her?

Didn’t she realize that she was supposed to just play along?

 

Find more reviews of Enemy of the People at amazon.com!

 

Justin, following, was dressed like a dauphin. He wore a doublet of lavender velvet, white satin knickers, silk stockings and silver-buckled black leather shoes. An ivory-handled dagger was stuck in his belt. The little finger of each hand bore an emerald ring. He was a perfect period piece, except for the shoulder holster slung under his left arm.

Justin’s hair was swept back and tied, and a ribboned pigtail had been pinned onto it. His manner was self-consciously regal: He carried his head high, and, as he crossed the clearing, he looked at no one but Nau.

 

If someone predicted in March that pirates would soon attack a US naval ship, they probably would have been laughed out of the room. Now, headlines and lunchroom conversations include the term “pirates” as if it’s a normal part of our vocabulary.

This weird revelation that pirates are alive and well and pillaging along the coast of Africa reminded me of a novel I read last year, right after I bought it at a garage sale. The 1979 thriller by Jaws-author Peter Benchley, The Island (no relation to the 2005 science fiction film), tells the story of pirates attacking modern-day tourists in – yes, believe it or not – the Caribbean, among remote islands in the British West Indies.

A bored reporter, Blair Maynard, investigates disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, to find out what’s really happened to all the missing boats, planes and people. He journeys with his son, Justin, to the isolated group of Turks and Caicos islands for a working vacation, not realizing the danger that awaits them. Never suspecting that they would soon be captured by modern-day pirates who have remained undiscovered for over a century.

Following their ancient, self-imposed code of “ethics”, the pirates plan to indoctrinate Maynard’s son, Justin, into their family of thieves.

Sadly, Justin soon becomes taken with the idea. After all, the leader of the pirates, Jean-David Nau, has adopted Justin as his very own son, giving him the pirate name of “Tue-Barbe”. Nau treats Justin as a boy with purpose, ready to become a man and take a leadership role. All for a little bit of robbing and killing here and there. What could be better for an adolescent, than to achieve such status so quickly and easily?

It seems much like the lure held by gangs. Many kids are forced into gangs by threat and beatings. But some see it as a way to survive and thrive, shunning education and society in order to become urban terrorists. They maintain their positions of power by terrorizing anyone who opposes them, or enters their “turf”, or gives them a funny look. They form their own sort of “family”, protecting one another from outsiders, while forcing members to follow their self-imposed laws, or face the consequences. There’s security, protection and provision. Just no freedom.

Like other criminals, one thing that gang members most long for is a sense of freedom, to do what they want, when they want, how they want, to whomever they want. And they imagine they have gained such freedom, while they continue to look over their shoulders for watching police, and continue to prepare for the next deadly assault from a rival gang. That’s not freedom. Though they prey on innocent people, those innocents, on the whole, will live much longer than the criminals who fill their world with bloodshed.

Maynard’s son, Justin, is so caught up with the allure of piracy that he’s soon willing to trade his own father’s life for the life of a pirate. In less than a week, he’s become completely brainwashed, without drugs or hypnosis. Simply the tempting profits of a life of crime.

 

“Why would he return?” Nau said. “He was not mad; he did not seek pain.”

“You have his child,” said Windsor

Nau paused, pondering. He put a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “This was his child no longer; he knew it. This is Tue-Barbe.”

Justin smiled and repeated, “Tue-Barbe.”

“We are many,” Nau said. “He is one and weak and …”

“And an enemy. You must find him and kill him.”

Nau said to Justin, “You are excused.”

“No,” Justin replied. “I can hunt.”

Maynard heard Justin speak, and for a second he regretted having returned to the island, only to be hunted down and killed by his own child. But he forced away his rage: As long as he was alive, he would not accept the loss of his son.

 

It’s not until he sees the bloody mess of a murdered friend that he is shocked back to reality. He begins to slowly realize that this criminal life is headed toward death. Death for those around him, and ultimately for Justin. With nothing to show for it but a bad reputation and a pile of stolen money that he can’t spend.

 

The company resumed loading the boat, but Justin seemed paralyzed. He could not take his eyes from Windsor, who was rocking back and forth.

Watching from across the cove, Maynard could tell that Justin was profoundly shocked. He was not sure why: The boy had seen so much death that one more should not affect him. Maybe, Maynard thought, it was that this was the first time he had seen someone die whom he had known before, in real life, and thus it was the first time that death itself was real to him.

 

Justin must wonder, will his new pirate friends even mourn him if he dies in battle? Will these thieves, who care nothing for the lives of those they attack, really concern themselves with Justin’s future? Or was that the role of the loving father that he rejected?

Are you considering the benefits of committing a crime? Something simple like shoplifting or “adjusting” the books? Does it seem like the only available option?

Think a little longer. Maybe talk to someone who can help. There’s always another way out, if you’re willing to look for it. There’s always someone somewhere who is willing to help you, if you’re willing to ask them. They might expect you to change some of your ways, but that would suit you much better than prison clothes or a spray of bulletholes.

Come back from the brink. A pirate’s life is no life for you.

 

Find more reviews of The Island on amazon.com!

 

 

But it’s not all that strange to me. I learned firsthand about the power of rumors, and it’s amazing how many lies people can swallow. If you provide a seemingly credible source, like a news reporter or a scientist or a person with an honest reputation, then gossip-hungry people will believe anything they’re told. The song, “Dirty Laundry”, by Don Henley, illustrates that people’s hunger for gossip allows entertainment-based “reporters” to deliver juicy stories to the public that often lack details to confirm the truth. I’ve seen many news reports that conveniently edit out portions of a video that would have clarified the details of a public figure’s speech, because the sound byte seemed to provide more drama. When I was a child, the news was a public service, provided to inform people of things they actually needed to know. Today, the news still informs, but it’s become far more entertainment-driven, promoting its news stories as if they’re dramatic Hollywood film releases, instead of details about people’s lives and communities. And when they’re telling a news “story” instead of delivering a news report, the more conflict and intimate details, the better. After all, it’s what sells.

 

I make my living off the evening news.
Just give me something – something I can use.
People love it when you lose.
They love dirty laundry.

When I was in middle school, a friend was teasing me to no end. I’ll call him Jay. I warned Jay to stop, or I would spread a rumor about him. I told him that because people knew me to be an honest person, I could say anything I wanted and everyone would believe me. Jay didn’t stop, so I started my rumor.

 

I just have to look good. I don’t have to be clear.
Come and whisper in my ear.
Give us dirty laundry.

It was so easy! I took a few steps out of earshot from him and told another guy, “Hey, did you hear about Jay and Sarah Reilly (not her real name, either) in the movie theatre?” This kid didn’t even wait for details. He said, “Really?”, then raced off to tell someone else.

I had planned to tell him that I saw Jay and Sarah Reilly, the school’s least popular girl, holding hands in a movie theatre. I knew that the rumor mill would fill in the imagined details on their own, as it spread from one person to another. But I never expected that someone would immediately invent a colossal lie in his own mind, without asking a single question. Over the next 30 minutes, I told two more people, and within three hours, everyone in school was buzzing about it. How did I know that, you ask?

Because that was when I had my class with Sarah Reilly.

 

Kick ‘em when they’re up,
Kick ‘em when they’re down.
Kick ‘em when they’re up,
Kick ‘em all around.

Before class started, she was surrounded by jeering students, telling her how they knew all about the alleged rendezvous between her and Jay. Sarah shouted back at them that it never happened and they didn’t know what they were talking about, but they just kept laughing at her denials.

I was the only one who knew what had really happened, and I felt sick. I never meant to hurt Sarah. I never really even meant to hurt Jay. I just wanted to strike back at him, and flaunt the power I felt I had.

I had gotten my wish. At the cost of two people’s reputations.

 

We love to cut you down to size.
We love dirty laundry.

I met Jay the next morning at the same time, and he seemed to find it funny that I had so quickly demolished his reputation. I apologized to him that it had gone so far. Then I went back to the same three people I had lied to the day before, and told them I had made it all up myself. It seemed to take even less time for this update to spread through the school. Surprisingly, my own reputation didn’t suffer for it. Only my conscience.

I’ve never spread another rumor since that day.

 

You don’t really need to find out what’s going on.
You don’t really want to know just how far its gone.
Just leave well enough alone.
Eat your dirty laundry.

It doesn’t really matter how rumors get started. What matters is how they end. They can end by destroying people’s careers or reputations. It can end by destroying their lives as people insist on swallowing lies about their character.

Or it can end with you, before it leaves your mouth, or enters your ears. The Bible says that the words of a gossip are like choice morsels, because they go down into a man’s inmost parts. Once you listen to a rumor, it becomes part of you, and you become part of it. It spreads like cancer, altering the way you view the person you’re gossiping about.

Before you believe a bad report about someone, consider the source. Are they an honest and reliable source of information about such things? Consider whether there are any other qualified, well-informed sources to back up the story.

Finally, whenever possible, go to the person yourself to ask them about this rumor, if it’s any of your business to know. If not, don’t even give those rumors a second of your attention. You can’t know if they’re true, and you don’t need to know, so don’t be a part of it.

Because getting involved in a nasty rumor could be something that you’ll regret for the rest of your life.

Believe me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find more reviews of Don Henley’s MP3 album I Can’t Stand Still at amazon.com!

 

Last week, young students at the prestigious Boston Latin School heard an announcement from their headmaster that there were no vampires on the school grounds. According to news reports at the time, the 7^th-12^th grade students had honestly believed their institution had been infested with vampires, the same way people believed Martians had invaded Earth in 1938 after hearing Orson Wells’ journalistic-style radio dramatization of “War of the Worlds”.

Can people really be taken in that easily? To actually believe that vampires exist, and are wandering their school halls?

Well … yes. People believe in a lot of crazy things. People still think they can change a situation by crossing their fingers and thinking “positive thoughts”. People still forward chain-letter emails that encourage others to “pray” so that they’ll somehow force God to bring them good luck, or that Wal-Mart will donate a penny to some worthy cause every time you forward that email. People still arrange garden statues in a particular order and believe the direction the statue faces will decide their personal fortunes. People still play the lottery and expect to win big someday, despite the overwhelming odds against it, and they even devise a “system” for picking numbers that are selected at random.

People practice these nonsensical beliefs every day. So why can’t they be taken in by some well-placed misinformation?

But the ones who were taken in weren’t just at Boston Latin School. According to later reports and reactions from students, most of the school populace never actually believed in vampires. So among the many people taken in by this fallacy were those people who heard this news report about gullible students and were gullible enough to believe it. And why shouldn’t we? After all, if it’s published in the news, it must be true, right? Especially if it’s confirmed – or perhaps reprinted – by another news source.

The real question is: What’s the truth? Where did this college vampire myth start? Apparently, a group of girls were “bullying” a classmate, a girl who liked to dress in Goth fashion – much like a vampire. Soon, a rumor spread through the campus that this Goth girl was, in fact, a genuine vampire, who had bitten someone’s neck and drank their blood. When police officers showed up at the school for an unrelated matter, the rumor escalated even further.

This entire situation reminds me of The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, in which three teenage girls from 19^th century Salem, Massachusetts discover that they can rid themselves of all their enemies by spreading rumors.

Rumors that their opponents are witches.

All the girls had to do was roll their eyes and act demented, while dropping hints that they had been cursed by that annoying neighborhood girl. Or that married man who had spurned their affections. Or anyone else who got in their way.

If that seems as far-fetched to you as the school vampires story, please read next week’s Weekly Blog, in which I’ll share my own personal experience with the surprising power of rumors. Meanwhile, please consider how you speak about others, whether or not you like them or the clothes they wear. The Bible says that the power of life and death are in the tongue. Consider what damage you can cause with unkind words, spoken to someone’s face or behind their back. Then think twice about inflicting that kind of damage, even upon your worst enemy.

Words can build people up, or tear them down. But it takes a lot more words of encouragement to build someone back up after only a few hurtful words have destroyed their sense of self-worth, perhaps even ruined their reputation beyond repair. Your words have the power to heal, or to kill.

Choose wisely.

 

Find more reviews of The Crucible at amazon.com!