This Fourth of July, two recent events have brought to reality the quote from Thomas Paine, when during the critical winter of l776, he wrote in “The American Crisis,” “These are the times that try men’s souls....” The first event was viewing Hollywood’s latest rendition of “Pearl Harbor.” For sheer spectacle, the actual attack on Pearl Harbor and the individual acts of heroism by both the military and civilian population are well worth sitting through this three-hour extravaganza. Thomas Paine’s quote was never more relevant than when President Roosevelt faced the Congress of the United States and declared December 7, l94l, a “day that will live in infamy.” He also went on to assure his listeners that the United States would gain the inevitable triumph, so help me God.

Roosevelt, as played by John Voight, is one of the best things about the movie and he caught the mood of the nation as much as Thomas Paine did. At the time of crisis, it wasn’t time to panic and fold one’s hand, it was a time to mobilize and fight back.

As the Japanese Admiral states in the movie, “I’m afraid that we have awoken a sleeping giant.”

I can still recall newspaper boys shouting the headlines, Pearl Harbor bombed, American battleships destroyed. As a youngster of seven, I too looked to the skies fearing an enemy attack as did my elders. Fortunately, it never came and we kids did our part for the war effort by collecting tinfoil from gum and cigarette packages, which we rolled into balls to be collected and recycled along with newspapers and rubber bands. The entire country mobilized to the tune of “Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor as We Did the Alamo,” and we gained the inevitable triumph.

The second incident that brought Thomas Paine to mind was reading John McCain’s book, “Faith of my Fathers.” His matter-of-fact accounting of his five and one half years in a North Vietnamese prison is more horrendous because of its simple rendering of the terrible hardships that he and his fellow prisoners endured. If there was ever an example of a “time to try men’s souls,” John McCain’s and his fellow prisoner’s experience was that time.

In a very emotional rendering of the story, McCain tells about his fellow prisoner, who secretly sewed an American flag out of bits of clothing and rags. When found out, he was tortured severely and immediately upon his return to his cell, he crawled to a corner, out of the light, and using his battered hands and squinting through barely discernible eyes, began sewing another American flag.

McCain refused release when the North Vietnamese offered it as a gesture in l968 when his father, Admiral McCain, became Commander-in-Chief Pacific. He didn’t want to be used for propaganda purposes. His refusal brought the full wrath of his captors upon him and he suffered in solitary confinement and through a lack of proper medical attention to the injuries he incurred when he had to eject over Hanoi after his plane was hit by a SAM missile. With the exception of a few prisoners that were released for propaganda purposes and a few who collaborated with their captors, the majority managed to stand up under torture both physical and psychological that is difficult to read about let alone imagine how they were able to withstand it.

Truly, Thomas Paines’s words, though written for a different time and generation, had as much meaning in l94l and l968 as they did in l776.