Hope

When news reporter Marguerite Higgins was covering the Korean War she received the Pulitzer Prize for her perceptive, sensitive stories. On one occasion, she wrote about being with the Fifth Company of Marines. It was early evening and the company had stopped the march to have their evening meal. The men were experiencing bone-deep fatigue, anxiety, fear and death. One huge Marine was leaning back against a truck eating his cold meal from a tin can. He had been in the field for many days and his clothes were stiff with dirt and cold. His heavily bearded face, encrusted with mud, was almost expressionless because of the immense fatigue he was feeling. One correspondent in the small group of reporters who were on the scene, obviously trying to get an exciting lead for his next article, asked that Marine a strange and perhaps insensitive question: “If I were God and could grant you anything you wished, what would you want most?” The Marine stood motionless…