[Magdalen] From +Georgia

[Ginga Wilder]

This is how to tell the truth.  Lynn, did Georgia send a link to the
article?  I would love to share it but don't think that I will do that
without also including its origin.  (DT might accuse me of putting out fake
news.)

Thanks,
Ginga

On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 12:20 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> There's a scene in the 1977 film, "A Bridge Too Far," that's stayed in my
> memory. The scene is of a thousand wounded British soldiers spread out on
> the ground awaiting boats to take them to safety after an epic battle
> during WWII. The camera pans over these soldiers lying there exposed and
> helpless and a lone soldier stands and begins singing the hymn, "Abide with
> me." Soon all the soldiers join in forming a great choir:
> Abide with me, fast falls the eventide: The darkness deepens, Lord, with
> me abide:
> When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide
> with me.
>
> Eventually, they make it back across the river safely. This film is about
> an actual military battle called Operation Market Garden. In 1944, British
> Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery believed the Allies could parachute nearly
> 35,000 soldiers behind enemy lines, cut off the enemy's supply lines, and
> change the course of the war. He convinced himself that the paratroopers
> would face little resistance, only youth and old men with guns, even though
> reconnaissance photos provided by his subordinates and reports from the
> Dutch underground showed two German tank divisions and front line troops
> present. The operation was a disaster and Allied soldiers paid the price.
> Of the 10,000 British paratroopers sent, history reports only one in five
> returned.
>
> This film isn't about a military battle or even military strategy, really.
> That's merely the dramatic container for an important history lesson. It's
> rather about the hubris of leadership and the consequences when leaders
> don't listen to those who may know more than they do. Montgomery failed a
> basic test of humility with respect to leadership. Believing something
> doesn't make it so. And failing to listen to divergent voices, especially
> provided by the "rank and file," often leads to disastrous decisions.
>
> The real hubris in this situation (and in others since then) is the
> leader's willingness to actively ignore facts that don't fit what he wants
> to believe. So, we witnessed over 400,000 dead Americans and Iraqis over
> non-existent weapons of mass destruction that UN Inspectors had said
> clearly didn't exist. We get the near collapse of the world economy caused
> by banks' institutional hubris even though there were plenty of warning
> signs everywhere about the housing bubble. And today we see refugees, who
> are vetted for 18-24 months before entering this country legally, denied
> entry. None of them come from countries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that
> have produced terrorists on American soil and not one refugee vetted and
> brought to America has engaged in terrorist acts.
>
> Once again, we're witnessing the hubris of leadership, which demands a
> circular logic that goes something like this: "Because I'm the leader and I
> believe something is so, then it must be so, because I'm the leader." The
> cost of leadership hubris is rarely paid for by the leader. It's most often
> the weak and helpless or those who are bound to follow orders that pay the
> price. Wanting to believe something doesn't make it so. Willfully ignoring
> the facts isn't a leadership virtue.
>
> Help of the helpless, O abide...
>
>
> The Rt. Reverend Scott A. Benhase
> Bishop of Georgia
>