More than a little crazy

JOSEPH N. BELL

Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the election. Maybe it’s the stress

of dealing with both of them at the same time that is pushing us a

little off our rockers. Like the front page of the Pilot last

Saturday.

The two lead stories had to do, first, with the appearance of our

most famous local citizen, John Wayne, on a U.S. postage stamp. And

the second described a website survey being conducted by Costa Mesa

real estate agent Steve Gooden to find out whether local citizens

think (I use the word advisedly) George Bush or John Kerry best

represents the views -- as Gooden sees them -- of Jesus. Honestly. I

kid you not.

I looked up the survey on my computer at https://www.

thepassionofbush.com, and there it was: a list labeled “What Jesus

Believes” followed by a tabulation showing that by Gooden’s

assessment, Bush was on board 85% of the time and Kerry -- not

surprisingly -- only 34%. Then readers were asked to vote on which of

the two presidential candidates they felt held beliefs closer to

Jesus. Gooden told a Pilot reporter that Bush was winning hands down

with 75%, which is about the way Republican demographics break down

in Newport-Mesa.

There’s a lot more survey data that I’m not going into here

because you can look it up for yourself, if you’re so moved. But a

few reservations -- beyond the speculation that the Jewish vote

hasn’t come in yet -- would seem in order. First and foremost, many

of the views attributed to Jesus by Gooden -- on homosexuality, for

example -- were not directly addressed by him in the gospels and

represent a considerable creative stretch. And, among many that Jesus

did talk about directly that didn’t make the cut were his contempt

for hypocrites and his charge to “love your enemies.” So, the

critical list might be more accurately labeled: “What Gooden Wants To

Believe Jesus Believes” or “The Republican Platform According To

Jesus.”

Now, what does all this have to do with the canonizing of John

Wayne on a U.S. postage stamp? Just this. For those readers who feel

strongly that exploiting Jesus for partisan political purposes is

both goofy and reprehensible but are intrigued by the survey idea,

John Wayne offers an alternative. Why not a survey to explore which

of the presidential candidates most closely shares the views of the

Duke of Newport Beach?

I have many hours of taped interviews I did with him for three

lengthy magazine profiles that we wouldn’t have to stretch for strong

convictions. We could also use quotes from his movies, like his views

in “Sands of Iwo Jima” and “The Green Berets” about the homage we

should pay the men and women who actually fight our wars.

I can see the survey title clearly: “The Passions (the ‘s’ is

important) of John Wayne.” The only problem is I’m going to be so

involved in the Angels’ fight for the playoffs that I won’t have time

to do it. But I’ll be glad to share my research with anyone who would

like to take it on.

Meanwhile, I’m pondering the reaction of UCI political science

professor Mark Petracca -- usually a cool dude -- to the Gooden

survey. He told a Pilot reporter, “It’s not totally crazy,” then went

on to explain why at some length. I prefer his original assessment,

but I’d drop the “not totally” part.

*

There was a short piece buried in the back pages of the Los

Angeles Times last Monday that should command attention and probably

won’t. It included lengthy quotes about the Vietnam War from the

autobiography of Gen. Colin Powell, who was there. Powell’s words

should put an end to all of the baloney and damage control on Vietnam

passing between the two presidential candidates, which must be

especially confusing to those of you too young to have been touched

by Vietnam.

Wrote Powell: “The policies determining who would be drafted and

who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who

would die and who would live, were an anti-democratic disgrace. I am

angry that so many sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed

to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units.”

This, quite simply, is the way it was. For almost a decade,

avoiding the military draft was a game that I watched played by

middle and upper-class American families to keep their kids out of

the Vietnam War. What Bush did was what many thousands of other men

of draftable age were trying to do; the difference was that Bush had

the clout to bring it off.

During most of this period, my family spent its summers at a lake

in rural Indiana, where the young people who played in our daily

softball games would mostly go directly to work from high school. I

saw them drafted one-by-one. Most of them tried to get into the

Indiana National Guard but found themselves many years down the list.

That wasn’t a problem for Dan Quayle, whose Republican father

published the largest newspaper in Indiana and who later became a

U.S. Senator and vice president of the U.S. Like Bush, he “wangled a

slot” in the National Guard.

The Guard wasn’t the only way out of the draft. Student deferments

could be creative, even exotic, as could family commitments (Vice

President Dick Cheney pleaded both). Well-to-do families could

arrange with friendly dentists to provide braces for their sons that

would offer a draft deferment. Kids without clout who couldn’t afford

any of these devices went to Canada by the thousands. The prevailing

attitude, as I recall, was “if you can get away with it, do it.”

Of course George Bush used influence to avoid the war. So did

almost everyone else who could. But Bush pushed the envelope by not

performing the simple tasks required of him by National Guard duty. I

don’t know why Kerry, who had the connections to follow Bush’s path,

enlisted to fight in Vietnam, but that act was more unusual than Bush

avoiding the war. And of course Kerry, when he got over there and saw

what a mess we had put ourselves into, came home and did the only

thing he could do to help those he had left behind: try to get them

out.

That’s the way Vietnam looked to Colin Powell and me when it was

happening. A little honesty now on this subject in the presidential

race might help us get on to more important things.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.