Posted on 12/24/2004 8:22:32 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Let's say you're a big peacenik. Card-carrying. World class. You marched in anti-war protests and sat in sit-ins when you were a college student during the Vietnam War. Maybe you even got tear-gassed while holding hands with Mary from Peter, Paul and Mary during a particularly nasty protest in front of the Conrad Hilton back in '68.
You've been arrested dozens of times for civil disobedience, continue to march, or sit, or picket, or shout on behalf of peace, and are one of the loudest voices in Chicago against President Bush and what you consider to be his immoral war in Iraq.
Now, let's say you have a son.
And he decides to join the Army.
What do you do?
That's what the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the activist pastor of Chicago's St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church and die-hard peacenik in question, asked himself when his eldest son, 30-year-old Lamar Michael Pfleger, called home in late August to say he'd enlisted.
"When he first told me that this was something he had made a decision to do, I was shocked, I have to admit that," Mike Pfleger told me this month as the three of us -- Mike in his black-on-black priestly garb and worried expression, Lamar in his new Army fatigues with the word PFLEGER printed in black, capital letters over his right chest -- chatted at the St. Sabina's parsonage, where Lamar grew up after Pfleger adopted him 21 years ago.
"He basically told me after he'd enlisted," the elder Pfleger said. "He knew where I stood, but he'd made up his mind."
Son's decision
In truth, Mike Pfleger was heartsick.
As an activist priest who insists we're fighting an unjust, preemptive war based on lies, yes. But more so, as, simply, a dad.
"I told him, I cannot feel good about it because he's my son, and I love him and I care about him," the normally bombastic priest said quietly. "My prayer for him and for Beronti, my other son, every day is for their safety and that they can achieve their goals. And that's my prayer for him, that he will achieve whatever dreams and goals God has for him. And I support him 100 percent in his decision. It's not my decision. And it shouldn't be. It should be his."
Lamar Pfleger is strapping, soft-spoken and African American, the opposite in many ways of his father, the blond, blue-eyed firebrand. But they share a stubborn streak, as well as a sense of spiritual mission.
A few years ago, Lamar was working for an airline in a job he loved. But then 9/11 happened and everything changed. The airlines suffered and jobs were cut. He survived the first round of layoffs, but not the second. A few years later, he found himself working as the assistant manager of a video store, depressed and unfulfilled. In prayer he felt God leading him to join the military, he told me.
"I knew I could be doing a lot more besides what I was doing. That's pretty much why I decided to go in," he said. "I'd rather go over there and stop them before they come over here and start doing it. And that's my point. . . . If I can prevent that from happening, I'll sleep better at night, too."
Childhood restrictions
This from a kid who wasn't allowed to play with toy guns as a child. "Not even squirt guns," his father said, proudly. "I got a cowboy gun once for my birthday, and he told me I had to take it back," Lamar recalled. "From then on, I should have known what kind of protest I was in for."
A few days earlier, I had called the elder Pfleger to wish him a Merry Christmas. "And how are your boys?" I asked. (In addition to Lamar, Pfleger has a younger son, 25-year-old Beronti, whom he adopted 13 years ago.)
All I heard on the other end of the line was a heavy sigh. I prodded and Mike told me how he'd just returned from Lamar's graduation from basic training in Georgia and how he'd cried through the whole thing. Happily, Mike said, Lamar -- "thank you, Jesus" -- had been assigned to a base in Seattle for at least a year.
When the three of us got together, I asked Lamar about his assignment in a combat striker unit of the 2nd Infantry at Fort Lewis in Seattle.
I kind of wish I hadn't.
The son took a deep breath, eyes darting to the ceiling, nostrils flaring nervously, and looked at his father.
"I've been assigned to Fort Lewis where I'll be taking classes and just staying in physical shape and probably be on standby until I'm possibly deployed. There's a good chance . . ." Lamar said, pausing uncomfortably, and turning toward his father. "I didn't want to tell my dad that, but there's a good chance I might be [deployed to Iraq]."
The father blanched visibly, but remained silent and tried to smile.
This must be killing him, I thought.
"Coming home, you know, missing a limb, that scares me more than anything," Lamar continued. "I would like to go by the phrase, 'Take all of me or take none of me.' . . . I'll be praying for myself, 'God, please forgive me for whatever I have to do.' But in the long run, it's something I have to do," he said.
'Death . . . anywhere'
Mike Pfleger is praying that his son won't be sent to Iraq.
"If he does, I'll continue to pray for his safety, no matter where he is," the priest said. "You don't have to be in Iraq to get maimed or killed. It can happen on a street. My youngest son, Jarvis, died here, three blocks away from here. So I know that harm or danger or death can come anywhere."
(Pfleger's foster son Jarvis was killed in gang crossfire seven years ago at the age of 17.)
"I just don't want my dad to worry," Lamar said.
"Not much hope of that, but he's gonna be all right because prayer is powerful," Mike Pfleger said, reaching out and touching his son's shoulder. "You're gonna be all right."
U.S. Army Pvt. Lamar Pfleger reports for duty Jan. 16.
And our prayers go with him.
If he's honest, he does ... but that's an open question :-).
What the?????? This is beyond the pale.
His father needs to thank him for having balls enough to want to defend his country and be proud of him. As a parent I know that we teach our children to analyze situations and to make decisions and long as they make the same decisions as we would we are proud. In situations like this we still have to be proud.
Steal?
Of course not!
I'll give it to you, but you must give it back when you are done.
Merry Christmas!
"The pacifist is as surely a traitor to his country and to humanity as is the most brutal wrongdoer."
– Theodore Roosevelt, July 27, 1917
I'd say they have finally achieved the American Dream, a son in the military to protect and give people like his father that opportunity to protest and spit in the very Marines and soldiers face that fought and died to give them that right.
Good luck to your nephew ... he's fortunate to have a family that takes pride in his service!
My husband did 10 years in the Air Force, and my brother is about to hit 20.
He is more worried about what his friends will say behind his back as they gosspip about his "failure" to teach his son properly.
John
A Roman-Catholic PASTOR??? With a SON???
WTF???
What is the quote by the famous 18th century English philosopher (name escapes me) about the worst moral state being unwillingness to fight for anything?
His son is light years more mature than his infantile father.
He has realized that it takes brave people to protect his fathers right to protest those who protect him.
Will you spit on him like you spit on us when we came home from Vietnam?
My advice is even simpler: grow up. There is a sad irony that the children of boomers are often more mature and stable than their parents. Heck, don't even have to wait for Alzheimers to set in for the folks to be into their second childhoods because they never LEFT childhood!
You speak the truth.
Thank you, kind sir.
You're a gentleman and a scholar and there just aren't too many of us left. :-)
A very Merry Christmas and joyous New Year to you and yours. :-)
Where do they find such men ?
"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke
No, It is I who thank you, as you have honored me.
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