Sgt. Parrott Read Voltaire

“He sort of walked sideways on the crossbeam of life. He never walked it straight. He promised me. He said, “I won’t get hurt.” This is Meg Corwin of Tinmath, Colo., wife of Staff Sgt. Michael C. Parrott, 49, who was shot by an insurgent and died Nov. 10 in Balad, Iraq. He was in the Wyoming Army National Guard based in Cheyenne, but was serving in Iraq with the Pennsylvania National Guard.

According to an article in the Nov. 14 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Corwin and Parrott met in 1986 at the University of North Carolina. Corwin recalled that she was charmed by Parrott's brown eyes, his big smile and the fact he read Voltaire in the bathroom. Added Corwin: "My husband and I both loathe and despise the war. He was under no illusion about this war. He didn't believe the Bush administration's reasons for the war, but he believed he could do some good.” Parrott had already served an 11-month tour earlier in the war, but volunteered to go back with the thought he could take the place of a young soldier.

Services are being held in North Carolina and Fort Collins, where Corwin teaches at CSU.

Now We Hear From Dr. Pangloss

From Voltaire, the satirist, comes Dr. Pangloss in the picaresque 18^th-century novel “Candide.” Pangloss, a professor of the arcane science of "metaphysico-theologico-cosmo-codology," contends that “we live in the best of all possible worlds.” In the book, when Candide, Pangloss and Candide's friend Jacques sail to Lisbon, a storm hits and Jacques is washed overboard. Pangloss stops Candide from saving his friend, saying that "the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for [Jacques] to drown in."

Panglossian logic is on display in every rambling speech by Pres. Bush. The Iraq War is the best of all possible wars. Iraq, of course, was formed expressly for American soldiers to die in. For them to do otherwise would be a mistake. It would send the wrong signal to the terrorists, whomever they are. 

And so on.     

--Michael Shay, 11/18/05