KEY POINTS:
My heart swelled with pride on Monday when I heard on the radio of the award of the Victoria Cross to Corporal Willy Apiata.
And my heart sang when I heard that he had won the highest of our nation's gallantry awards for saving a life, rather than - as so many have - for killing lots of enemies.
I was almost in tears as I watched this humble young Maori soldier wave off his bravery as "just doing what I was trained for - to do my job and look after my mates ... "
In spite of his belief to the contrary, his life is forever changed, for he has joined a pantheon of heroes who give a whole new meaning to "we will remember them"; men whom we will recall with pride long after we've forgotten all the names of the big-money show ponies who run up and down rugby fields or sail fancy yachts.
Corporal Apiata, I salute you. You have laid to rest once and for all the dreadful appellation "Once Were Warriors".
* We read screeds these days about the upcoming American presidential elections, the war in Iraq and other facets of American foreign policy - all written by professionals. But rarely do we read anything about what the ordinary American thinks of all this.
Thus I was fascinated the other day to receive from a long-time friend in Chicago - a Vietnam veteran and a patriot - a letter giving (unsolicited) his thoughts on the state of his nation.
Having complained that the housing market "has gone stone cold dead" and that petrol prices have "risen to unprecedented heights", he writes:
"G.W. Bush has so screwed this country I cannot imagine where we are going to end up. He did Iraq for the oil industry, but has alienated all the oil-producing countries, antagonised all our natural allies, squandered all the goodwill engendered by 9-11, and is courting inflation like the 1930s.
"Beside that he has pretty much instituted a police state based on no due process of law and no habeas corpus, a violation of the Magna Carta, if not the United States Constitution. The country is going straight down the drain and no one cares.
"Neil Postman wrote a book years ago called Amusing Ourselves to Death, and I think that should be the new US national anthem.
"It is very frustrating and disillusioning that for the major industrial nation in the world we have a very poor record with infant mortality, affordable healthcare, college graduation, aid to education, affordable housing, and folks living below the poverty level.
"And all the while we are fixated on moron movie stars, media celebrities, religious nutcases, sport, sex and food.
"What I am observing now depresses me beyond words: folks willing to render up their civil rights - freedom of speech, due process and so forth - without a thought, the very things this country was founded to protect.
"We have a nitwit in the White House, an aggressive military, a dependence on foreign oil and Chinese and Mexican manufacturing, linked with a distaste for education and vital research, abrogating that to India and China.
"The world my kids will inherit will be far different from the one we grew up in. Truly, a two-tiered society has developed - haves and never-will-haves. The never-will-haves are placated with bread and circuses, have no idea what a wider world holds, and will never have a clue - and nor will their kids - about the possibilities that exist in life.
"They have become a rather perpetual Dickensian underclass, almost English as a caste/class system.
"I have never been more ashamed of my country than I am now and that won't change until we have a regime change in Washington. I have sent money to back the campaign of Barack Obama for President.
"I really feel deep down that we must have real systemic change in Washington and Obama represents that kind of change - young, very bright, articulate, forward-looking, seeing an inclusive America, and wanting to do good.
"We must rid ourselves of the old-time, business-as-usual politicos ... and return, if we can, to a representative form of government.
"I feel in my guts that Obama represents that goal, and represents substantive change, which is long overdue, especially after the guy now in the White House.
"I have met Obama and he is just magnetic. We have not seen idealism and youth in Washington for far too long - just old guys, with old ideas, and too many favours owed."
There are those among us who, like me, will note several parallels with New Zealand society today, but all in all aren't you glad you're a Kiwi rather than a Yank?
Seems to me we have much to be thankful for, tired old Government and all.
