The New Hitler--A Sombre Reality

Memory, being what it is, recalls for us the things that we know. I am old enough to faintly remember the Second World War and the death of President Roosevelt. I do remember all about the atomic bomb and the radio dramas that stirred up my young imagination.

Hitler I do not recall, though I learned plenty about him. The Korean War, I recall fully. The Iraq wars are part of our world today. The emergence of America as the world's lone superpower has been on my watch.

Which brings me to a foreboding conclusion--never in my lifetime have I remembered the configuring of world events to be so ominous as they are now. The Cuban missile crisis was nothing like this. The election of a terrorist movement among the Palestinians coincides with the rise of a President in Iran who aspires to obliterate Israel and wipe it off the map. He is also apparently closer and closer to nuclear weapons. And Pakistan is only one military coup away from handing over its nuclear weapons to Islamic fundamentalists.

These days, I conclude, are dangerous days. Marilynne and I may get to live out our days in peace, our children and grandchildren may not. Your indulgences I beg for this morose moment.

That is why, I suppose, we carefully pray for all of you, our friends, loved ones and the extended family--and I surmise we ought, all of us, to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."