Trophies and Safe Spaces

            When my grandson first joined a soccer team some years ago, he was the worst player on the field; he had never played the game, didn’t know the rules, and had no clue which goal was his.  Yet, at the end of a losing season he still got a “participation” trophy.  His generation is now the one that doesn’t understand that losing is part of life.          

            At universities across the country, coddled students traumatized by the realities of life wallow in self-absorbed pity at the dire prospects of a Trump presidency.  They seek shelter in the safe spaces of academia, in the comforting arms of professors as detached from reality as they are.           

            Fr. George Rutler, pastor of St. Michael’s Church in Manhattan mockingly says it best: “In universities across the land…these “safe spaces” [are] supplied with soft cushions, hot chocolate, coloring books, and attendant psychologists… [and] friendly kittens and puppies for weeping students to cuddle...What will the frightened half-adults do when they leave their safe spaces and enter a society where there is no one to offer them hot chocolate during their tantrums?”

            Fr. Rutler points out that among many youthful historical figures, Alexander Hamilton was a fighting lieutenant-colonel at the age of 21, Joan of Arc a heroine at 19, and Don Juan of Austria only 24 when he halted the advance of the Ottomans in the battle of Lepanto.  There is no record of their moral maturity having been molded (or delayed) by the intellectual pretenders of their day. And no record of their ever having received a participation trophy.

Post-Election

            Stunning images dominated the presidential elections, beginning for me with the post-election map of the United States by county. Except for slivers of blue along both coasts and pockets of blue in urban areas, the map was almost all red. Then we got TV reports on street protests in several large cities and flag-burnings on college campuses. These images tell us a lot about how divided a nation we have become.

            The map shows a stark division between rural and urban America. The protests, moreover, confirm, beyond simple geography, that we have two Americas with essentially different values. These differences have always existed, but it took an election between two flawed candidates with enormous negatives to arouse passions on both sides.

            The majority of citizens outside our cities, feeling disenfranchised by a leftist government insensitive to their needs, voted against what they saw as a corrupt Democrat machine that would only make matters worse. “Drain the Swamp” became the perfect expression of their anger, as they rallied for the one man who heard their cries and gave them hope. What the biased media and the pollsters missed was the depth of their passion.

            The street and campus protesters railed against election results that threaten their generous entitlements. Will they now be forced to pay for their own food, their own medical care, and, as Hillary promised, their free college education? The eruption of slanders from an embarrassed media says it all: How will we survive in a country run by bigots and racists?

            I submit that we are not a nation of bigots and racists. Most Americans are not haters. They are law-abiding citizens who believe in equality and in the freedom and opportunity to enjoy their God-given rights of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Maybe it’s time for all of us to retreat to a quiet corner and to re-read the Declaration of Independence. In this season of Thanksgiving, we should all be grateful to be living in this great country of ours.