By Chris Tucker
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-973677.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Remembering a childhood hero, commentator Chris Tucker says that America cannot be the moral policeman of the planet.
You never know what Hollywood will do to a good idea, so I've got my fingers crossed for the Green Lantern movie which opens today (6/17). That's because when I was a comics-crazed kid, Green Lantern was my hero. I read Superman and the Fantastic Four and Batman and all the rest, but Green Lantern mattered to me in a way the others never did.
If you don't know the Green Lantern story, he had an amazing Power Ring that could create anything he could imagine. The ring had to be recharged every 24 hours, and each time he charged the ring, GL had to repeat this oath:
In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship Evil's might,
Beware my power Green Lantern's Light!
Notice the wording here. Green Lantern pledges to seek out and defeat all evil. No shades of gray, no moral relativity. You're either with him or against him. Though it was nothing but a 12-cent comic book, Green Lantern, to my childish mind, epitomized the idealistic, moralistic view of the world. With all due respect to my Sunday School teachers, I probably imbibed more lessons about courage and duty from comic books than from holy books.
Now I haven't read a Green Lantern comic in decades, but I can still repeat the Oath word for word. And strangely enough, those words come back to me now during discussions of serious political and moral issues.
The Oath came back to me most recently with the crisis in Libya. People around the world implored America to help defeat the undeniably evil Quadafi. I can't see how Quadafi is a direct threat to the United States, but for many people that didn't seem to matter. A New York Times columnist basically said that wherever armed thugs are hurting people, it's our duty to go and stop them. Anywhere, anytime.
For a lot of people, America is Green Lantern. "No evil shall escape our sight." And in some ways I sympathize with that view. When the weak and innocent are oppressed, some champion should come to their aid. Our hearts cry out for justice.(We may be touching on the roots of religion here.)
But is it realistic, is it possible, that any country can be the Green Lantern of the world, the perfect hero/crusader who can solve all problems and stop all evil? In the world as we find it, some evil - perhaps lots of evil - does escape our sight.
Right now, for instance, while we lend our hand to the effort against Quadafi, the dictator of Syria tortures and maims and kills his people. Do we send the Big Red One to take him out? How about all those political prisoners in China? And North Korea? I'm afraid quite a bit of evil escapes our sight there.
That doesn't mean we can never do the right thing; it just means we cannot be the sole guardian of the planet, the Green Lantern of the world.
John Quincy Adams knew that a long time ago. Here's what he said:
"America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."
That may not be as poetic as Green Lantern's oath, but it may be a better and more realistic oath for our country to follow.
Chris Tucker is a Dallas writer and book collaborator.
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