THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 28, 1995 TAG: 9501270031
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
For as long as I can remember, conservatives have taunted liberals in public with the term ``bleeding heart.'' The idea, I assume, is to put us on the defensive. No one wants to be a bleeding heart; it's not manly or something. A bleeding-heart liberal is permissive and can't make the tough choices that life demands for survival.
But liberals should take heart - literally. In the very tradition conservatives love to revere, there is the interesting origin of the term ``bleeding heart.'' It refers to Christ, whose sacrificial blood - ``bleeding heart'' - is the salvation of humanity and, as a part of the Eucharist, represents the spirit that nourishes the faithful.
One specific expression of this symbolizes Christ as a mother pelican, who, to feed her starving chicks, pierces her own heart with her bill and revives them with her blood. European Christians of the 17th and 18th centuries, including the founders of this country, would have been familiar with this particular symbol and would have held it in some reverence.
So when conservatives call us liberals ``bleeding hearts,'' they compare us to Christ. It's a high compliment, I'd say.
On the other hand, since they seem to mean it as an insult, one has the duty to point out to them whom they are really insulting.
D. D. DELANEY
Norfolk, Jan. 11, 1995 by CNB