The American Spectator : The First Ironman of Hawaii

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The First Ironman of Hawaii

Locally he was known as Makua Kamiano. On Sunday, the day after the state's annual Ironman Triathlon, Pope Benedykt will celebrate his canonization.

On Saturday, October 10, the Ironman Triathlon will take place in Hawaii. In a contest that tests human endurance, the athletes, without taking breaks, will swim 2.4 miles in the open ocean, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon (26 miles). It has been held annually since 1978.

I submit to you, however, that the first Ironman of Hawaii met the test of human endurance well before 1978. His name was Makua Kamiano and he lived in Hawaii from 1864 until his death in 1889.

The world learned of Makua Kamiano's exploits for the first time in detail in a 1937 biography by John Farrow that was subsequently translated into 13 languages. It remains in print. (If Farrow is known at all today, it is as father of the actress Mia Farrow, wife to André Previn and Frank Sinatra, and cohabitor with Woody Allen.) John Farrow (1904-1963) wrote short stories, novels, biographies, and 28 screenplays, and he directed 46 films. For his work in Around the World in Eighty Days and Wake Island, he was nominated for Academy Awards.

An Australian who had run off to sea, Farrow had sailed throughout the Pacific. After additional adventures, he found himself in the early 1920s on one of the Society Islands (of which Tahiti is a part) waiting for a ship when he befriended a young man of about 25 years of age with leprosy. The young man introduced him to a retired sailor from Hawaii who regaled him with stories about a leper colony and a man Farrow thought fictional named Kamiano. Whenever the old sailor spoke the name Kamiano, he half-genuflected and looked heavenward. Farrow later learned that "Makua Kamiano" was Hawaiian for "Father Damien," a real person. Farrow, a lover and writer of big stories, went to Belgium and Hawaii to learn the details of this man's story, resulting in the 1937 biography.

As a sailor, Farrow enjoyed describing Damien's trip to Hawaii. Damien de Veuster left Belgium in 1863 at the age of 23 on board a sailing ship in the company of a number of passengers, including nine other men from his religious order. They were Catholic priests; as a seminarian, he was not yet ordained. It was his first time on an oceangoing ship and what an experience! In our day, we would undoubtedly find a trip of five months, on a sailing ship, going round the fierce Cape Horn a test of human endurance. But in those days it was simply not out of the ordinary for anyone going halfway around the world.

Two months after his arrival, he was ordained and, because of the need, without any apprenticeship, made a pastor in Puno. During his tenure he built two churches. Now, there are many Catholic bishops and priests who served in the U.S. in the period 1850 to 1950 who acquired the reputation of builder -- of churches, hospitals, schools, orphanages, convents. The difference is that Damien built these two churches with his own hands.

When a pastor of another parish, a much larger one geographically, became ill, Damien volunteered to switch parishes with him. That brought Damien to Kohala. It took him six weeks to visit most parts of the parish. There was a remote village, however. To this village, Damien traveled with two parishioners by canoe but it capsized in shark-infested waters. He decided to make a second attempt. By himself he rode a horse as far as it could go, then walked, then swam, and then climbed a mountain on his hands and knees. At its summit there was no village in sight. So he climbed down a steep ravine, then up a second mountain, then down again, then up a third mountain -- through rain, through mud sometimes waist-deep, losing his boots, losing three fingernails, scratched by vines and branches. This third mountain he descended at night -- his fourth night out. Exhausted, dehydrated, losing blood and unconscious, he collapsed.

Let's stop the cameras at this point, as movie director Farrow might have barked. Three images come to my mind. The first is that of Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. After 16 days in an open boat on the high seas, including one day experiencing hurricane-force winds that kept it from landing, he and a small crew landed on May 9, 1916, on South Georgia Island, but on the wrong side of the island. He, and two other men, attempted to cross to the other side. For 36 consecutive hours, they hiked on snow and ice over unmapped terrain. In the darkness they slid, purposefully, down a mountain. They managed to walk into the whaling station.

The second image is that provided by former President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech entitled "Citizenship in a Republic" at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

But Damien was neither an explorer like Shackleton nor a politician in the arena like Roosevelt. Since he was a minister of the Christian Gospel, the third image is more apropos. This third image is a medieval bas-relief by Donatello on the north pulpit of St. Lawrence Church, Florence, depicting Jesus Christ Who, according to Christian belief "descended into Hell" (or limbo) to open the doors to Heaven for the Just who had preceded Him in death. English Christians call this "the Harrowing of Hell." The word "harrow" is derived from the Old English "hergian" meaning "to make war, lay waste, ravage, plunder," and is the word used in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for what the Vikings did to England. This bas-relief depicts Jesus upending Hell to accomplish His mission. He is sweating and exhausted beyond all telling from His labors.

And now, with cameras rolling again, we see some villagers in the morning finding a man's body. They see that he's a white man and discover that he is unconscious, not dead. Imagine their surprise -- and their joy -- when they revive him and he tells them that he is a Catholic priest.

Farrow reports two additional incidents of great physical courage during Damien's time at Kohala. On one occasion he was on horseback along the shore and saw in the distance what appeared to be a ship's lifeboat and an unmoving body. Ignoring sharks, he swam out and found eight sailors who had been adrift for eight days after a fire at sea. He brought them to shore and nursed them back to health.

On another occasion a woman came to his door late at night. The woman knew him because Damien had given her once ill daughter some medicine. She whispered some words to him and then fled. She had told him pagan incantation rites against his life were being conducted that night in a burial cave. He walked through the darkness for an hour, found the cave, and surveyed the scene. There were 30 men. A voodoo priest had a doll made to look like him. Damien ran in, tore the doll to shreds, and stomped on its remains. He reproached the men and told them it was not a place for honest men and that they should return to their wives and children. Then he walked between them and left. No one touched him.

In 1873, Damien's bishop invited him, and many of the priests on the Islands, to Maui for the dedication of a new church. After the ceremony, the bishop addressed his priests about the new rules by the Board of Health concerning the leper colony that had been established on Molokai in 1866. Because the disease was contagious and incurable, there could no longer be visits to the colony. He wanted to provide pastoral care to those with leprosy but he would not assign anyone to the colony. Instead, he asked for a volunteer who in effect would be taking a vow of stability like a monk -- and who would be at high risk of acquiring the disease. Four stepped forward. Damien, now age 33, successfully persuaded the bishop to let him go to Molokai.

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About the Author

James M. Thunder is a Washington, D.C. attorney.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (57) | Leave a comment

Amdog| 10.9.09 @ 8:54AM

The patron Saint of triathletes? Thank you for this wonderful motivation to be fully alive.

L. Banks| 10.9.09 @ 8:59AM

Thank you for such a wonderful article on a person who gave himself to help those cast aside by society. His life honors his work and elevates the dignity of mankind. This is in sharp contrast to today's world. I find it ironic that Obama has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. This article points out the sharp contrast between the two men and their deeds. It shines the light of truth on what really is important in life and exposes those who only use others to gain what they want. Thank you again for this beautiful story.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 9:07AM

Ah, Hawaii. The first overseas dominion of the American Empire.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 6:59PM

just Thank God a Toddard wasn't potus back in the 19th century. 'twould have been like having a Jimmy Carter potus in the 20th.
But as for Obama, I do unhumbly disagree with fellow conservatives:
if Obama is hated even half as much as Clinton, he is sure to be re-elected. Opposition to Obama helps fuel the recovery- '93 redux.

Richard Baker| 10.9.09 @ 9:28AM

Shutup Doddard. Father Damien was worth a million of your sort. Do have some respect for your betters, as he was. I lived 8 years in Hawaii and his name there is still spoken with reverence.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 10:29AM

I'm sorry - perhaps you've mixed me up with someone else. I said nothing whatsoever about Father Damien.

Big Leo| 10.9.09 @ 11:23AM

Amazing, isn't it? If the article was about butterfly collecting, ol' BLT would find a way to turn it into an America-bashing thread.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 11:54AM

"BLT". That's actually kind of funny.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:12PM

' "BLT". That's actually kind of funny. '

Glad to hear your funnybone matches your thick skull.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:09PM

Toddard can't help being as dense as he is over-educated. He was born that way.
Rush is less educated as Toddard, but is far more aware. By God, can you imagine what trouble we'd be in if intelleckshuels ruled the airwaves?: The Noam Chomsky EIB Network;
gives you the dry heaves just thinking about it.
Winos lying in alleyways are probably more in touch with day-to-day realities than academics.

Since Toddard undoubtedly admires Orwell as much as he admires Chomsky, here is the best of all:
"Only an intellectual could say something so stupid"

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 7:40PM

I have a different favorite Orwell quote that I think of every time I read Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, David Brooks or any of the other jingoistic arm-chair warriors so eager to send American kids to die so they can talk tough and feel manly:

"The people who write that kind of stuff never fight; possibly they believe that to write it is a substitute for fighting. It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever gets near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours.

Sometimes it is a comfort to me to think that the aeroplane is altering the conditions of war. Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him."

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 8:02PM

So if Hitler had won we would have had world peace via population control, and no more cowardly Yids like Johah, the Kristols, Brooks shirking their duty, eh, Pat?
er, I mean Toddard?

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 9:28PM

You have completely stopped making any sense. I get that you're clumsily attempting to call me an "anti-semite" (a word which you apparently do not understand) but starting a sentence off with "so if Hitler had won" makes no sense. It's completely incongruous. No one was talking about World War II. In another thread you inexplicably started yammering about conspiracy theories. You are starting to write like a deeply confused, mentally ill person. Just calm down and think about what you're going to write before you start furiously hammering away at your poor keyboard. Ask yourself "Does this make sense, to write this at this juncture of the conversation?" Because most of the time the answer will be "No".

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 11:22PM

"You are starting to write like a deeply confused, mentally ill person."

I do it deliberately to provoke a response from you. Coming to AS and writing what you write means I can do the same-- turnabout is fair play. You write lazy Chomsky blather, I will write kooky rightwing drivel.
You get what you deserve.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 11:27PM

You are a "lazy" Chomskyite in that you don't have his first class education, but you possess his viscerality. And so you don't think I'm picking on Chomsky because I met him 22 years ago, I will also attack Ward Churchill-- who is as visceral as Chomsky-- from now on.

JayC| 10.9.09 @ 9:35AM

I recently read another short biography on Fr Damien. In 1 incident, he apparently saw a pedophile abusing a child; ran over to them; and beat the cr*p out of the abuser. Now that's a man who knows how to protect the defenseless!

Tim| 10.9.09 @ 10:37AM

"A dancing sparkle, a doubtful star,
On the waste wind whirled and driven;
But it seems to sing of a wilder worth,
A time discrowned of doom and birth,
And the kingdom of the poor on earth
Come, as it is in heaven.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T.....hite_Horse

Jeff R| 10.9.09 @ 10:54AM

A wonderful, uplifting article. In a world far too preoccupied with the self, it's refreshing to read about Father Damien, who understood in the marrow of his bones what makes for genuine chartity and compassion.

Rob| 10.9.09 @ 10:57AM

Terrific tribute, Mr. Thunder!
Fr. Damien was a towering monument to peace and to charity. It's ironic that you would present this story on the same day that the Nobel (thankfully, not "noble") Peace Prize goes to such an unworthy recipient. Where are the Fr. Damiens of the world today? Unfortunately, not enough of them are running for president.

Jeff| 10.9.09 @ 10:59AM

Ah, the old "American Empire" nonsense again. Toddard, I've read your drivel for quite some time without responding. I can no long hold my words. I would like you to tell me of what empire you speak.

Would it be our empire in Europe? Oh wait, we liberated half a continent twice and only asked for enough land to bury the heroes who gave it all selflessly to help people they didn't even know.
Maybe you are talking about our empire in Japan. Wait, we beat the crap out of them, then rebuilt their country and gave it back to them.

I know there was a time where we were the protectorate of places like the Philippines and we still have protectorates like Puerto Rico and American Samoa, but they have free elections and representation in our government.

So, I will ask again, what empire are you talking about?

Also, this article was about an individual who gave everything he had to help others. Please try to comment on the subject matter of the article.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 11:50AM

“I would like you to tell me of what empire you speak.”

The American Empire. The one we now maintain with our over-700 military bases strewn across the globe to force our will on faraway peoples. Surely you’ve heard of it.

“Would it be our empire in Europe? Oh wait, we liberated half a continent twice and only asked for enough land to bury the heroes who gave it all selflessly to help people they didn't even know.”

False. It was done to help people they knew very well – their own countrymen, on whom Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had declared war. When it was only those foreign “people they didn't even know” who were being attacked, Americans across the land rightfully told Europe to stuff it, and wanted no part of their war.

“Maybe you are talking about our empire in Japan. Wait, we beat the crap out of them, then rebuilt their country and gave it back to them.”

After occupying it for a decade, installing military bases there and dictating the size and scope of their military to them for the next half century.

“I know there was a time where we were the protectorate of places like the Philippines and we still have protectorates like Puerto Rico and American Samoa,”

Yes, much like Rome had protectorates in Gaul, Palestine and Britain. The Phillipines hated our occupation and fought manfully against it. You might be interested to know the definition of Empire:

“a group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.”

Just Hawaii, Puerto Rico and “American” Samoa qualify the U.S. as an Empire, without bothering to get into the countless Imperial conquests, invasions and puppet governments we have erected and propped up to maintain our Imperial hegemony.

“but they have free elections and representation in our government.

Our overseas dominions apart from Hawaii – such as Guam, the Phillipines and Puerto Rico had/have no voting representatives in our government.

“So, I will ask again, what empire are you talking about?”

The American Empire. The one we now maintain with our over-700 military bases strewn across the globe to force our will on faraway peoples. Surely you’ve heard of it.

“Also, this article was about an individual who gave everything he had to help others. Please try to comment on the subject matter of the article.”

No thanks.

Mike Giles| 10.9.09 @ 3:41PM

"The American Empire. The one we now maintain with our over-700 military bases strewn across the globe to force our will on faraway peoples. Surely you’ve heard of it. "

Now the above statement, which is blinding in its utter stupidity; seems to ignore the fact that the US hasn't forced it's will on anyone. Quick, name the American proconsul for Germany. How about the American Governor General of Japan? The American Viceroy of Korea? We have Bases in all of those places, where are the American overlords? As anyone capable of reading a newspaper, and noting the constant disagreements between ourselves and our ALLIES, would smart enough to see. American bases - which we leave the moment we are asked to (Subic Bay, Clarke Field) are not imperial bases, put their to keep the local population down. Indeed, our servicemen and women who serve there are subject to local law, something never allowed by an imperial power. In Puerto Rico and Samoa, the populace regularly vote on their status, they simply like the way things are - as much as that may irritate you. Americans, fought and died to protect - and liberate - the Phillippines; which received their independence as was promised before the war. It was late because of the Japanese - not because of the US.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 7:50PM

"Now the above statement, which is blinding in its utter stupidity; seems to ignore the fact that the US hasn't forced it's will on anyone"

The U.S. is not, as we speak, forcing its will on Afghanistan and Iraq? On Iran, with regards to its nuclear program? The U.S. did not force its will upon the Filipinos? The U.S. did not force its will upon Iran with the coup that brought the Shah to power? The U.S. did not force its will on Guatemala with the CIA-backed coup of Jacobo Arbenz? The U.S. has not tried for fifty years to impose its will on Cuba? The U.S. did not force its will on Nicaragua? The U.S. did not force its will on Serbia?

Perhaps you are talking about a different U.S. I mean the United States. What on earth are *you* talking about?

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:21PM

'When it was only those foreign “people they didn't even know” who were being attacked, Americans across the land rightfully told Europe to stuff it, and wanted no part of their war. '

There's a name for what was protected, Toddlard:
the West.

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 7:36PM

I don't think "Toddlard" works very well as an insult. Is that supposed to be like "Todd-lard"? A weight joke? It's probably better to stick with the Toddard/retard puns.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 8:06PM

"The U.S. did not force its will upon Iran with the coup that brought the Shah to power?"

We were fighting the Soviet Social Fascist Empire .

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 9:23PM

The Soviet Union was not "fascist". Fascism and Communism mean different things, as do Communism and Socialism.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 11:35PM

I didn't say the USSR was fascist, it was SOCIAL-fascist, as was the Third Reich. They both had proletarian influences, were degenerated worker's states.
NO. I am NOT writing that the Third Reich was socialist, but it did possess socialist tendencies, as did the USSR.
Again, both regimes were 'Social Fascist', which is, like all terminology, just a convenient (in this case) shorthand for "degenerated workers' social fascist state".

Eric Cartman| 10.10.09 @ 12:49AM

"The Phillipines (sic) hated our occupation and fought manfully against it. "

My Filipino wife was simply fascinated to hear this! She is astonished you know the history of her country better than she!

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 11:55AM

I will say this, though: "Jim Thunder" is just about the best name I've ever heard.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:22PM

does Jim Thunder remind you of an old boyfriend, Todd?

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 1:48PM

"Fed up with the corruption in sherrif's office, Big Jim Thunder has decided once and for all to clean up the town - armed with nothing but a two-by-four and a caramel-colored Grand Torino."

Alan Brooks| 10.10.09 @ 5:06PM

"I was in the middle of reading an article about a truly remarkable, selfless man, Father Damiam, when I came to replies and found that by the third one, the comments had been usurped by political blather. Must you turn everything into such an inappropriate discourse? "

js,
you are right. But please remember that Toddard started the digression from Father Damiam to the 'evil American empire'.

Alan Brooks| 10.10.09 @ 5:08PM

... and here is proof-- comment #3:

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 9:07AM
Ah, Hawaii. The first overseas dominion of the American Empire.

Akaky| 10.9.09 @ 2:51PM

But, Mr. Toddard, if you will notice, Father Damien was a Belgian. Can we not assume from this then that he was actually an agent for the ever-expanding ambitions of the European Union and not of the American Empire you dread so much?

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 2:56PM

I have no objections at all to Fr Damien. He was a selfless man and a great Catholic.

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 7:26PM

but by your lights, Todd, was he also an imperialist agent for America; Rome; the Trilateralists, and Jack Ruby?

It's all in Chomsky's new book, on sale for $29.99

S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 7:52PM

That makes absolutely no sense as a criticism.

Alan Brooks| 10.11.09 @ 3:38AM

It was merely to pull your leg, a reference to anti-'Popist' conspiracy theory. Here was another joke:

"So if Hitler had won we would have had world peace via population control, and no more cowardly Yids like Johah, the Kristols, Brooks shirking their duty, eh, Pat? er, I mean Toddard?"

It was a joke, get it? not a good one, but it is all you deserve. Hope you wouldn't have your wittle bitty feelings hurt if one were to suggest that you are rather humorless even for a 35 year old kid...

Alan Brooks| 10.9.09 @ 11:53PM

Sense, you want sense. Alrighty; critical sense to a crypto-Chomskyite who hides behind analytical objectivity and trolls at a conservative-Rightist blog. So here goes nothing (because you wont comprehend);
My conservatism is based on Churchill (Winston, not Ward), who said, to paraphrase, that democracy is bad but better than the alternative. America is imperialist but preferable to others' imperialisms, IMO (otherwise I wouldn't blog at AS).
Toqueville was prescient in predicting America and Russia would rise to prominence the way they did almost a century later. IMO it was good America beat Russia to the punch in creating a more durable, and humane, empire.
You are second guessing history, you say what ought to be; I say what is, is-- until many decades have passed.
Nothing necessarily wrong in what you write, but-- for the 20th time-- why do you come to a conservative-Rightist blog? You convince no one here as far as I know. I haven't learned anything new from you, you offer the the same warmed-over Chomskyite/Ward Churchill half-truths available at hundreds of other blogs. And you are not a genius like Chomsky and Churchill are, though they are as visceral as you.

S.L. Toddard| 10.10.09 @ 11:13AM

That's great. That's like saying "My conservatism is based on FDR". Or "My liberalism is based on Barry Goldwater, that great liberal".

What a conservative Churchill was. When he first came into power the UK was an empire on which the sun never set. When he died it was a socialist backwater. Way to "conserve", Church.

j s hicks| 10.10.09 @ 4:41PM

I was in the middle of reading an article about a truly remarkable, selfless man, Father Damiam, when I came to replies and found that by the third one, the comments had been usurped by political blather. Must you turn everything into such an inappropriate discourse?

Alan Brooks| 10.11.09 @ 3:25AM

"What a conservative Churchill was. When he first came into power the UK was an empire on which the sun never set. When he died it was a socialist backwater. Way to "conserve", Church."

Yeah, todd, Winston Churchill was practically a subversive by your reckoning. But who knows what you think, not even you know what you think.

Alan Brooks| 10.10.09 @ 5:03PM

js,
you are right. But please remember that Toddard started the digression from Father Damiam to the 'evil American empire'.

Alan Brooks| 10.11.09 @ 3:51AM

... and once more, so everyone who scrolls down this far cannot fail to remember who started the digression:

"S.L. Toddard| 10.9.09 @ 9:07AM
Ah, Hawaii. The first overseas dominion of the American Empire."

I couldn't stand to read his attacks on America (perhaps he is Canadian?) so I attacked him back.

David| 10.10.09 @ 5:51PM

I am speechless. I am shamed. To read of true nobility in Father Damian - what a remarkable man. My sponsor will, on occasion refer to some of my problems or consternations as merely 'princess-problems'. ALL of my problems are 'princess-problems' compared to Father Damian's. What a marvolus lamp post to show the way to God. Thank you Father Damian, St. Damian.

Gerald Stephens| 10.10.09 @ 8:31PM

Well that's it!

I think J. L. Toddard is either a Republican provocateur or seriously obsessed.

And since I have come to believe that one with the most initials preceding the sir name wins debates hands down...

G. J. P. Stephens

gerald stephens| 10.10.09 @ 8:39PM

J.L. You will please forgive my silly error.

It is really S.L.

G.J.P.

j s hicks| 10.10.09 @ 8:52PM

who is this elitest snob who,as liberals tend to do, resorts to name calling at every opportunity? has anyone done a count on his use of "stupid"? and isn't everyone glad to know he has "no objection to Father Damian" (see 10/09/09@2:56pm). how charitable of him!

j s hicks| 10.10.09 @ 9:00PM

oops! I just reread what I had sent and realized I'd ommitted the name Toddard - but I bet most of you had guessed that.

j s hicks| 10.10.09 @ 9:03PM

oops! I just discovered that I mistyped 'omitted'. I must start checking before sending, but then, I'm new at this.

Alan Brooks| 10.11.09 @ 3:19AM

We all knew it was Toddard. And get this: he appeared (it is hard to pin the Jello to the wall) to fault
Churchill.
so now Winston Churchill is unworthy of Toddard's sympathy. He admires Chomsky more than Churchill.
Winston, not Ward, Churchill.

Michael L. Hauschild| 10.11.09 @ 11:12AM

Please forgive me, I inadvertently read one of the scroll troll comments because of its brevity. I will immediately seek out chemo as a preventative measure to deter the inevitable onset of ocular cancer.
As penance for my sin I will reluctantly rhetorically respond.
Who would you rather see sail into your port in the context of the Pacific circa 1935, the Rising Sun “Imperial” Navy of Japan, the “Royal” Navy of the “Sun never sets” British Empire, or the “United States Navy” whose seamen are seeking out a tattoo parlor or access to a grass skirt?

Rob| 10.11.09 @ 12:03PM

I stumble across this fine article about Father Damien and find the commentaries of egotistical blowhards.

Michalel L. Hauschild| 10.11.09 @ 12:24PM

"Where are the Fr. Damiens of the world today? Unfortunately, not enough of them are running for president."
Rob,
I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it really would not be a good idea to either run, or have, a missionary for a President. If Father Damien went to Washington everyone around him would burst into flames and the conflagration would burn down some pretty nice monuments.

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