Courage is a part of our DNA. And yet of late it may be hard to tell if this is still true.. The mere threat or rumor of potential terrorist acts, followed up by statements by our nation’s leaders reinforce fear as the motive for how we live our lives, travel, or make political decisions.
Fear has become a standard marketing tack for business, has limited our experiences and participation in otherwise stimulating and positive activities. Fear is justifying the need for handguns and concealed weapons. Fear has reshaped our legal system, become the primary rationale to preemptively limit personal liberties. And it is the reason to compromised international agreements. Fear has become the main rhetoric in political campaigns so candidates can avoid disclosing who they truly are.
These actions and behaviors are completely outside of our collective character.
____________
"Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.".
- Amelia Earhart
____________
Fearless visionaries who had everything to lose maintained a principled bravery in order to bring this nation into the world.
Looking in the rear view mirror of history, we have grown as a people who wouldn’t acknowledge trepidation. Fear did not prevent Lewis and Clark from exploring and mapping a completely unknown portion of the world - not unlike a completely different planet. It wasn’t fear that settled the early American west. It wasn’t fear that gave lift to the first flight at Kitty Hawk. Fear did not deter those who marched, at great peril, for civil rights. And all trepidation was set aside as we first set foot on the moon.
What happened? We have now allowed those at the helm of this vessel of freedom to set a course based on apprehension and anxiety. Yet they have demonstrated no good examples of their own, avoiding commitments to their oaths of office; the oaths in which they swear to “…preserve, protect and defend the Constitution…” causing even laws counter to the Constitution to be enacted in support of collective apprehension and taking advantage of an anxious electorate. And so the creation of a sense of alarm has caused or allowed the ink on that document to fade. The erosion of rights must not be the collateral casualty that creates a potential for the greatest damage to a nation proud of freedom.
The color code put in place by the Department of Homeland Security subsequent to the tragedy of 9/11 provided no information on the cause of a change in hue, nor did it instruct citizens how to prepare or react. It only served cryptically to tell all what level of fear they should rise or to what depth of cowering they should sink. It also becomes a report card on the success of those intent on instilling panic and alarm, very possibly our own powers that be.
Those responsible for acts of terrorism are indeed despicable thugs and criminals who, after facing a court, should be brought to justice under law and face severe consequences. However, those who take advantage of terrorist acts, or a popular current cause for anxiety en masse, and do it for political gain are just as despicable.
____________
“Only he who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
- Aristotle
___________
No one should be seated in an elected office by votes garnered from a campaign of fright.
Instead our leaders should infuse confident courage to act as an example, just as FDR and Churchill did during WWII, and return us to the posture of dignity, reminding us all that no one in this ‘home of the brave’ can impose the emotion of fear without our consent.
Let our patriotism be reflected in the creation of confidence rather than crusades of suspicion. Let us prove we think our country great by striving to make it greater. And, above all, let us remember that, however serious the outlook, the one great irreversible trend in world history is on the side of liberty -- and so, for all time to come, are we. - JFK
# # #
All the best,
Lloyd
Lloyd
