I mean Elizabeth Hasselbeck, one of the co-hosts of ABC-TV's The View, hosted entirely by and aimed mostly at women. Sure, she's attractive and fashionably dressed, like most other women on TV. She's also intelligent and opinionated, which is not common in media eye candy of either sex. But most important, she appears to be a sincere, well-informed Catholic not afraid to stand up for moral truth.I'm thinking mostly, if not exclusively, of her on-air spat with Barbara Walters about the morning-after pill last August. I had meant to comment on it at the time but couldn't because I was in the process of moving. You can see it on YouTube if you're able to stomach Walters long enough; I was able to do so because I knew from the time I met Walters in a Manhattan elevator three decades ago that, despite appearances, she is a genuine human being. But Hasselbeck has courage, even if some patronize it as mere chutzpah; that Rosie O'Donnell can't stand her is a very good sign too. I hope she doesn't lose the courage and that she is led to a higher vocation by the episode in which she displayed it.
We must be grateful for people like Hasselbeck and emulate them in our own, less visible ways. Let us pray for the courage: witnessing gets costlier all the time. That's why the fact that somebody so privileged is willing to take the risk is worth holding up to the young, especially young women.
