OCR Text |
Show Should Praise Heroes Excessive praise of our heroes is stupid, we have on the word of Prof. Evarts K. Greene, of the department of history of Columbia University. The professor declares that too much laudation of our past heroes suggests a stupidly pessimistic view ot our own times when we have to deal with ordinary human beings. The professor is right in that dishonest history loses much of its force and is shortsighted. There is no use in denying defeat after we've been beaten; no sense in poets calling kettles lilies. But be kind to our heroes, professor. We have our Aaron Burns and our Benedict Arnolds. These we have always with us. And we do need a good example or two, a few ideals to let us know that all the kettles are not black, at least. There are too many of us now who know there isn't any Santa. |