The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-04-03

In one man may not be courage al
all-but sheer lack of nerves. or In
ability to grasp mentally the sig
nificance of a dangerous situation
Frequently men and women will
perform high deeds Of heroiSm In
sudden surge of emotion which
sweeps them along as raging tor
rent losses a twig, and correspond
ingly in a sudden and equally un-
comfortable surge they may be
driven to acts for which, after the
emotion has cooled, they are heart
lily ashamed.
One of the Oldest plots In history
Is that Of a man who showed the
white feather under certain cir
cumstances, only later to retrieve
himself and cloak himself in glory
The story has been done to death
The reverse has been written also
on innumerable occasions-uSually
in a humorous vein. For no one
likes to read Of a coward who re-
mains coward to the end. It mir
rors too closely some spot In his
own soul. For in all of us there is
streak of yellow, narrow or wide,
and how that streak will stand up
under challenge depends on great
many things. The fortunate can
steel themselves TO meet that OF
which they are afraid. But some
times, chance, conditions. circum-
stances can pierce any armor. Who
can truthfully say how he would
meet danger, unexpected, unanti-
cipated, when his arms are down
No one wants to be afraid. And so
I contend, as I have contended al
ways, that there is no fear in the
world to equal the fear of fear. !
am not alone in this. Ask any man
who has faced danger. Ask any
soldier what his reactions were the
first time he was about to come
under enemy gun-fire. If he is
honest-of course there are a few
exceptions-he will tell you he was
afraid of how he would act; he was
afraid of being afraid.
There was young lad I knew
before the last World War when we
were both young. A pleasant chap
not particularly athletic, he lacked
dash and vim. He was afraid OF
battle, and was not ashamed to say
SO. But when this country entered
the war he enlisted-in tank corps
as a private I think. He came out
of the war with several wounds
promotion, and decorations-includ-
ing the Congressional Medal. None
of us who thought we had more
CUTS than he achieved anything like
that.
All this leads up to something ]
was in on, over the air, the other
night, on the Ginny Simms pro-
gram which you can catch any eve
ming over NBC at 8 o'clock.
One of my own pet fears was the
fear Of going blind. I thought I could
stand almost any affliction in the
world other than that. But now
I'm not afraid of going blind any
more. And the reason I'm not
afraid is because of message that
came to me over the radio when
Private Walter McMullin of the U
S. Army was being interviewed by
Ginny SinmS on her broadcast last
week. Private McMullin was blinded
In this war only few weeks ago. He
was on his way home to where his
mother awaited him In Maine. He
talked to her over the phone. All
he could tell her was he was "feel-
ing fine" And, that? Why I'm
not worried. You're more worried
than l."
Ginny questioned him as to how
he felt young and never to be
able to see again. He answered hel
simply, unaffecttedly. II don't mind
You don't have to see things and
people, to know things and people
You can hear them, and hearing
them you get to know them e..
Why, Ginny,'' he said, you don't
see people over the radio. But you
get to know them just the same ;.
I'll get along all right. :"
That was all he said. 'Ill gel
along all right" He meant what h
said. You could be sure of that. Sit
ting alone in my room listening tt
him speak I was sure Of that. Anc
I felt lump rise in my throat anc
fog crowded into my eyes. For here
was courage. True, unadulteratet
courage. Courage not born Of
moments urge, but spawned by cold
certain reasoning, and full know.
ledge of what lay ahead.
Private McMullin is going to fin
ish college, and then-well, by ther
he hopes to be able-among othel
things to handle typewriter by the
touch system. And when he ha!
mastered that, he hopes to write
preferably for radio. He will have
an entree there for Ginny promised
him, for all to hear, that when he's
ready she'll help him to his goal
the goal he can see and steer for
though he walks in the dark anc
there Is no moon nor star.
Truth or Consequences" every
Saturday night, NBC, $3.50, which
enters its fifth year of broadcaStine
this Saturday Is by and large
Rabelasian orgy of comedy anc
Slapstick humor. But every now anc
again the producers leaven 1t witt
a gesture OF kindly human under
standing seemingly SO out o
place on a program Of its kind a!
to be unbelievable, and yet because
Of all that, trebly moving. One Sucl
interlude I witnessed myself tn,
other night when I was present IL
the audience for the show abou
which I have already told you IL
this column. I wasn't expecting thu
incident, If 1t can be called that. NJ
one could have expected 1t. Whel
Ralph Edawrds called for thre'
service men to come UP on the stag
and three appeared, we all expected
some gag, some jest. But there wa
little of that. One of the three wa
sailor. gunner's mate, think
but wasn't paying much attention
to that any more than I was to hi
name, But what I did hear wa
that he had been decorated, that h