Why are the most heroic Americans often the greatest squinters? What distant object are they focusing on? Is it the hostile Cherokee coming over the hill? Is it the dust blowing off the Kansas soil? Is it the midday sun over the Rio Grande? Are their eyes half closed in grittty dust or in alert action?
Why do Bill O’Reilly, George Bush, Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Ronald Reagan, and Heath Ledger squint? What truths are they filtering out? Do they squint to save their souls?
Other nations venerate their thinkers, poets, generals, inventors, teachers, singers and martyrs. We lionize the squinter. Can anyone tell me why?
Here in Van Nuys 