Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 23, 1993 TAG: 9311110372
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yes, in the very season that the "Friday the 13th" horror-movie series promises that the hockey-masked ghoul Jason is not just merely dead, as he has been so many times before, but really most sincerely dead, well ... who springs back to life but the Man of Steel himself.
Evidence, at last, of real change?
It's about time. Truth, justice and the American Way have been taking a battering and, let's face it, mild-mannered reporters just aren't equipped to handle things the way Superman can.
The Great Flood of 1993 that inundated vast stretches of the Midwest? All mere mortals could do was pile sandbag on top of sandbag, often losing to the surging power of the river.
Superman could have flown down to the riverbed and dug out a deeper channel, his super strong hands and arms thrusting through the earth ahead of him. Then he'd push the mud he'd churned up onto the bank, forming levees to protect forever the small farming communities peopled by simple but kindly folk that dot the pleasant, rural countryside.
The terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center? Law-enforcement agencies did a pretty impressive job sifting through the rubble to figure out what happened, and made some quick arrests.
But Superman wouldn't have let it happen in the first place. He would have overheard the conspiracy being hatched as he walked briskly down a New York City street, his superhuman hearing picking up a conversation in a nearby car. Tipped to the plot, he would have kept a vigil till the explosives-laden van arrived. Spying it with his X-ray vision, he would have lifted the rolling bomb, flown it far out over the ocean and dumped it, bomb, perps and all.
But then he'd have swooped down and plucked the evildoers from the waves and flown their sorry, bedraggled selves to the nearest NYPD precinct house. Because that is the American Way. (Remember?)
So Superman could have done all this stuff - and would have, heaven knows - but he's been dead.
So now that he's back, what's he going to do for us?
Hmm. The flood's receding, but the national debt isn't. The people can't afford to pay any more in taxes, but will most certainly succumb if any tax- supported programs are cut.
Maybe Superman can gather up all the national debt, pile them on some big net-type thing, tie this up and fly it out past the Earth's atmosphere. We've seen him do this with nuclear weapons. He twirled them around and tossed them out into deep space.
Then maybe he could turn his X-ray eyes on the national health-care dilemma. Everyone must have access to health care that is the best in the world, but no one must pay any more than they do now and no one must profit any less.
Superman must save us from this dilemma if he expects to remain our superhero. We demand no less of President Clinton, and he's no Superman.
by CNB