3 People I Would Rather Not Meet in Heaven--But Maybe Later.

In an effort to be insightful but not mean spirited, I've chosen three people I would rather see--a little later. I know if you D-list 3 people, you think of the Stalins, the Hitlers, the now seemingly indestructible Robert Mugabe.  Help me, here. Why do bad people get the good genes? The man is nearly 90 and still able to kill a few dozen fellow citizens before breakfast.

Well, I've selected three men [are there no bad women in my history data base?] who reside in the interstices of human history. They remain the subject of historical and ethical debate. About the stock falls on, say, Robert E. Lee, someone "proves" "Bobby Lee" could have easily won the Civil War with another 50,000 men.

Here's my list: Robert E. Lee, George McClellan, Douglas MacArthur.


Robert E. Lee:
I do not approach Lee as a professional historian but as a fellow human with more questions than answers. I don't know if I would have the guts to enter into a conversation with him about any particular battle strategy. I would love to hear his response to Pickett's question, "Why did you send my cavalry group 'up the gut' at Gettysburg?" Pickett's broken charge did lead him once, years later, to say, "That old man killed my army."

I would wonder aloud why a man who contended he fought for his "country" and not for slavery did have a 100 slaves while running his father-in-law's plantation, and was known to always ask the man with the bull whip to "lay to." The skin had to fly, he believed, in order for people not to want to run from a situation "worse than death," as one slave put it--towards freedom.

Would someone please ask him what he really meant about Virginia as a "country?" I know the argument about secession, state's rights, etc., but I sometimes wonder, recently, for example, after watching a documentary on Lee, if his own acquired aristocratic roots through marriage added to his perception of Virginia as a country--a piece of real estate that had bragging rights on Jefferson, Adams, Washington, etc. Was pride a factor?

And why the painful slaughter of his troops, now boys, endured the last two weeks before calling it quits and going to Appomattox to turn over his sword to a more common, blue collar Grant, the embodiment of the ethos that I admit I admire more than spangles, mint juleps under the mangroves, served by enslaved human beings.

George McClellan:
Had I written this 3 weeks ago, I would have happily described George McClellan as the worst general in the history of the US army. Recent research rescues him as someone who brought order and obedience to the Army of the Potomac. For me, however, he remains a metaphor--someone who can get ready, plan carefully, put a lot of talk and spit and polish, as we used to say, into a project.  He knew how to dress for a ball, but he couldn't dance.  And though his men respected him, he had no respect for President Lincoln, whom he called a "Gorilla," in a letter to his wife.

But he could never deliver.

I had a collegue years ago who spent more time talking about his credentials than about the art of teaching. He read books with such care that he refused to fully open the book for fear the spine would pop. He never annotated because he feared marring the pages. And he was genius enough not to have to annotate. He never finished his degree, no matter how many leaves he said he needed and how many more research assistants he demanded to finally deliver the Great American Dissertation. But nothing ever happened---especially in the classroom. I once suggested, out of administrative fiat, that "There is more to teaching than sitting on the edge of the desk and talking randomly about 'ideas' and meandering speculations." Torro Ballistics! He remained the McClellan of the classroom.

Douglas MacArthur:

To lead an army of men into battle, a general must obviously have an abundance of ego. My so-called "personal" encounter with MacArthur came through the papers during the Korean War. I knew of the famous promise to the Philippines: "I shall return." And he did--in a carefully staged "action" photo sequence. I know, it's not the first time the military has "photoshopped" a so-called "scene" of military success in order to pull yet more money into the Military Industrial Complex. After all, it's one of the few viable manufacturing businesses left in America.

It takes a lot of Ford cars to equal the profit on the sale of one F-15 fighter to Saudi Arabia. The glitz and  fudging aside, that, by the way, continues in Afghanistan. General Be-tray-us taught an unlearned Obama the art of smoke and mirrors in the name of "surge." And it continues.

My disenchantment with MacArthur started during the Korean War. He seemed like another military savior in khaki, dark glasses, the storming of Inchon and the systematic push of the overrated North Korean army from Pusan all the way to the frozen Chosen Reservoir. He and Ridgeway seemed incomparable.

Then came the Chinese. MacArthur, forgetting who leads the armed forces in our country, opted openly for an atomic bomb attack on Chinese forces. He tried to ride over Truman, the least understood and least appreciated president in our history. No, he was not Lincoln, but he understood the Constitution and could see the dark specter of the military thrusting its fist into the Executive Office. He also ignored demographics. Mao, in response, said, "we can afford 3 million soldiers."

Later, it became clear, once the Wall collapsed that secret records revealed Stalin's willingness to join China and go to war with the US. It's common knowledge today that most of the so-called North Korean air force was comprised of Russian pilots.

My approach would be quiet and courteous. I have not forgotten what such men have done to try and keep us free. And now that MacArthur lives where there is no war, I can only wonder whether "Old Soldiers" really are willing to "fade away."

In the Other World we remain essentially what we are here. True, the softening continues; the love for others increases; and finally, our perspective changes.

Given the Other Worldly context, I am perplexed to know what doctors and generals spend their time doing there.