Greg: My apologies for failing to credit you with the ingenious Kitler safe place posting. That had to be one of the funnier things I have seen in a few weeks. :-)

All: So I just finished reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and I am absolutely enthraled. Truly one of the more moving books I have ever read. But part of what intrigued me so greatly was Dickens view on the French Revolution. Here in the States, we generally view the Revolution as a time when the "evil monarchy" was overthrown in the pursuit of democratic reform. What I found so interesting was that Dickens showed the dark underbelly of that pursuit. In their zeal to overthrown all that had oppressed them, the "reformers" (if you can call them that) actually became the oppressors themselves. Countless innocents were thrown into prisons and executed by the Guillotine, all on very circumstantial evidence similar to the evidence required during the McCarthy era. Someone doesn't like you. They whisper into someone else's ear. And before you know it, you're considered guilty. Just a really nasty undercurrent to an historical event that I was taught was all wine and roses.

But back to the book. Ultimately, what makes this book sing is the idea that someone who was formerly beyond redemption can, in his final days, choose to set aside his vice and become something more than anyone ever dreamed he would. And in those final pages, that character keeps repeating the "I am the resurrection and the life" passage suggesting that for his impending sacrifice, he found a model in Christ who had died for him.

This, of course, got me to thinking. What would I actually lay my life down for? And what do other people lay their lives down for? Greg just posted about the death of a former Marine who single-handedly convinced 1000 Japanese to surrender. Do people like that exist anymore? Are there actually people willing to live and die for the sake of others? I know Greg is going to point to many who presently serve in the military, but I don't know if I buy it. The folks I know who are currently serving are serving not because they believe in the cause. They are serving because of the excitement, the adventure, the college tuition, or even because they lack something better to do. It just seems to me that this idea of laying down one's life is a dying notion. And I would submit that this is actually another cause of our declining democracy. The elevation of the individual over and above the value of the collective whole. What do you think?