"When have we ever taken a hero on the battlefield and put them up on a pedastal that we would put an athlete?" David Bellavia asked.

For expressing that sentiment, Bellavia has bourne the scorn of lesser and 'accurs'd' men. 

I interviewed Bellavia during the Vets for Freedom National Heroes Tour stop in Kansas City at the World War I Museum. 

A Silver Star recipient, Bellavia has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Fallujah in 2004.  Bellavia went into a house full of terrorists.  Bellavia came out alive--the terrorists didn't.

In the stone and glass interior of the WWI museum, it struck me that Bellavia has much in common with WWI's most famous hero--Sgt. Alvin York . 

But while York was feted as a celebrity on his return from Europe (complete with a ticker tape parade), Bellavia has been slandered by certain members of the news media for declaring that retired Naval Aviator, former Prisoner of War and now U.S. Senator John McCain is more worthy of a pedastal than a professional golfer.

Bellavia said :

Fortunately, I have the privilege, the distinct privilege today, of introducing a true American hero who defies political norms in Washington.  Sen. John McCain has spent a lifetime in service to our nation. His example of unwavering courage is a model for every American. Rest assured that men like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate and admire. You can have your Tiger Woods, we've got Senator McCain.

For declaring Senator McCain a more worthy role model than a professional golfer, MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann slandered Bellavia.

That Olbermann, a former sports caster turned liberal opinion television host, would turn the above quote into something unrecognizeable is to be expected

What is more disturbing is how the American public treats its war heroes as compared to how it treats sports heroes--sports heroes like professional golfer Tiger Woods.

Woods has fame, deference and financial security because the American public likes to watch grown men hit a small dimpled ball with metal sticks and Woods is one of, if not the best at hitting the dimpled ball with a metal stick.  Supposedly there is drama in the game.

But the winner of the weekly golf matches has no bearing on the lives of people outside the PGA Tour or the golf industry.

But America would rather be enthralled with a meaningless game than the literal life and death struggle Bellavia emerged from.

The drama of golf is the clutch play--putting the ball in the cup, recovery from a bunker shot.

But in the clutch play where the stakes were life or death--not a championship purse or green jacket--Bellavia defeated all comers.

Why are countless hours on Olbermann's former network, ESPN, devoted to Mr. Woods to the point he has saturation name recognition, but Bellavia is unknown?

The stakes of war exceed the comfort level of most Americans.

"We're comfortable with athletes," Bellavia said, "we're comfortable with what they do.  We know where they are at."

The weekend duffer can share a bit of the Tiger Woods experience, the recreational basketball player can share a little of the Kobe Bryant experience playing one-on-one in the driveway.  But to share the Bellavia experience requires going one-on-one with a terrorist with a knife and killing the terrorist.

"We want to support warriors, but we are uncomfortable with what they do," Bellavia said.

And what they do is what Bellavia did in Fallujah--kill those who would gladly kill us.

Where Tiger Woods possesses mental and physical skills beyond the average man, Bellavia possesses a fortitude beyond the average man.

Average men know it and it makes them uncomfortable, for they know that fortitude is not something you are born with--it is something you take hold of.  Having fortitude is a decision each one of us makes and many choose not not to have it.

The story of a battlefield hero like Bellavia forces us to ask, if we were faced with similar circumstances, what would we choose?

Deep in our hearts--we know the answer and most would not choose fortitude.  Many are comfortable with that choice and recognize that those who would choose fortitude over fear should be celebrated and put on a pedastal. 

Others, stung by their own fears and failing and whose ego will not allow them to acknowledge they are wanting, will ignore and marginalize the hero.

They find the comparison too unsettling.

Many, if tortured the way John McCain was, would not have chosen fortitude--and they know it and it hurts them.

It is as the bard wrote :

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed  
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,  
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks  
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

In our drive-through-strip-mall-plastic-disposable culture, fueled by self esteem and victimology--the 'accurs'd' like Olbermann refuse 'to hold their manhoods cheap.'

Olbermann's ego will not allow it.  He refuses to acknowledge that John McCain's fortitude in the Hanoi Hilton is more worthy of emulation than Tiger Wood's skills on a manicured fairway.

Olbermann's ego refuses to accept that Bellavia's exploits in the clutches of death are far above the clutch hitting of any MLB player.

David Bellavia's offense is not comparing a caucasian battlefield hero to a mixed race professional golfer--it is the strength of mind he displays in declaring the battlefield hero more deserving of public honors than the golfer.

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