A Time of Valor, or Surrender

The crisis, approaching for several years, is now almost upon us.  You can feel it in the air like that eerie stillness before the storm breaks.  The border has been crossed and we are without charts or guides.  This nation has never been here before.  We are, all together, writing history. 

I can’t tell you the exact dimensions of this crisis or what form it will take but I can tell you that the man in the White House and his enablers have gone in so deep now that they are in a position where they must do anything and everything to retain power or lose everything.  And that power is visibly slipping away.  There is panic and an unbalanced, desperate mind at the helm with no one to restrain him.

I can tell you what to expect.  I can say with certainty (because it’s already started) that a campaign of bullying, threats and intimidation the like of which has never been seen in our public life since the dark times of 1859-60 is here.  That there are people unhinged enough to take physical actions in support of it.  That there will almost certainly be blood, perhaps a shocking amount of it.  There will be lawless behavior both inside and outside government not seen since the nineteen-sixties.  And I can just about guarantee that this state of affairs will be used to attempt to invoke limitless presidential power to deal with the “state of emergency.”

(I hope I am completely wrong about this.  I have never been so hoping to be wrong, but I fear I’m not.  There are peaceful paths out of this crisis — but they all lead to the President’s losing and that he will not likely abide.  The narcissist facing unavoidable defeat usually tries to burn down everything in his final rage.)

Now is the time for each of us to summon our resolve to stand up, peacefully but with utmost firmness, no matter what happens.  No matter what sacrifices have to be made.  No matter what losses we sustain.  There will be those who with faint hearts will be willing to give up their principles for peace.  We can’t take their council.  We have to stand up; for to yield to this intimidation now is the end of our constitutional Republic without the slightest doubt.

Our history books are filled with the stories of patriots who stood up when the odds appeared hopeless, when many were falling around them, when others were ready to surrender.  We honor them today, rightly; they passed to us this nation whose fate we hold in our own hands now.

I'm not even remotely suggesting using violence, I’m calling all to defend the rule of law and not allow the violence used against us to deflect us from our goal.  Like the civil rights movement that stood tall through the raging fires of the violence thrown at them we can do this as long as we all hang together —  for if not, then we shall all surely hang separately.

Some generations are lucky enough to live in peaceful times.  This is not our lot.  There will be much political violence and perhaps, almost certainly, some unknowable amount of physical violence too. This die was cast in November 2016 and the inevitable consequences are here.  We must stand up both for ourselves and to put courage into any of our leaders who may waver.

Now is the time to prepare to arise, each and all of us, like those heroes of old, and make this a time of valor and not of surrender.