The Conservative Son

I remember when I was in Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood Missouri, oh, I guess, April of 1981 and we were told by one of the Drill Sergeants that Pope John Paul had been shot. I remember this jerk of a Drill Corporal told me later, when I asked, that the Pope had died. I was shocked and hurt not only for myself, but for some new Catholic friends that I had made.

I'm not Catholic; I'm just an old Southern Baptist boy. Still, I've learned over two and a half decades to love a man who stood up to Nazis, Communists and the forces of immorality and slavery in our world.

I've watched this man, who I obviously didn't always agree with, stand for his convictions when everyone else told him it was time for change. He had the courage and common sense to understand that tradition and the tried-and-true should not be so easily cast aside.

Yes, I'm quite sure that the Pope is Catholic, but he is the kind of Pope, rather, the kind of man, whose influence goes far beyond the scope of those who may lay claim to be his followers. Now, he has come to the end of his days and the whole world watches while his life ebbs away. Those, like myself, who appreciate what this truly great man has done to promote the freedom and dignity of all mankind and how he has, quite literally, changed the world for the better will miss him sorely. Like Reagan, Thatcher, Roosevelt and other greats of the twentieth century, there may never be another quite like him.