My kids have recently discovered the Superman cartoon series from the early 1940's. While I watched it with them, I was amazed to no end at the truth that was boldly proclaimed through a child's cartoon. The show opened with a brief but powerful synopsis of Superman's backstory. He was the lone survivor of a people alien to our world, but he took it upon himself to fight "the never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way." Yes! Then would unfold an episode wherein our hero would defend the city from a criminal threat, usually posed by a jealous mind who thought himself justified in his quest to pervert and subvert...truth...justice... and the American way. You see, it would be a clear-cut "bad guy," something we struggle to identify today. Oh, and along the way Superman would also manage to rescue the incorrigible Lois Lane, whose journalistic curiosity had gotten her a little too close to the story one more time. The intrepid Superman would accomplish all of this while proudly wearing our nation's colors. And, it would all end with Clark Kent overhearing the chief congratulate Miss Lane on another great "scoop," at which Kent would cast a knowing glance our way and give us a wink and a smile. It was an America-hating, communist, history revising, post-modern, self-loathing coward's worst nightmare. The children of America would see these shows un-apologetically teaching right and wrong, good vs. evil, and the never-ending nature of the fight that is necessary to defend our homeland and the freedom that she affords to all who, like Superman, find shelter under her way of life. A generation of parents taught their children that America was prosperous and strong because she was founded upon the Word of the Lord, and His precepts were remembered and honored.
More than seventy years later, as long as a real American man still lives, let us teach our children the same story of America. Just like taming the wild land that so many Americans made into places that they called homes, the fight against evil is in fact never-ending, as long as we inhabit this world. It isn't enough to break the ground, raise a house and cultivate the field once. We have to maintain the work to keep it from being reclaimed by the wild. We have to drive fence posts into the ground and ever-vigilantly defend our families from evil and deceit. And, we have to teach our children to do the same.