Happy New Year!
Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - January 01, 2009Happy New Year - Best wishes to all for a 2009 better than 2008.
Today, the slate is clean - every new year starts with no mistakes, nothing to correct, and a perfect batting average. Tomorrow is another thing.
For those of us who believe in liberty, free markets, and limited government, 2009 will be challenging. In both Washington's, we don't have many friends irrespective of political party, and, after the most recent election, we will have fewer. This past year, the values we espouse were under attack from all quarters. No reason to expect anything different between now and December 31st. If anything, the press will be even greater.
What, then, is to be done? The forces arrayed against us are formidable, strong, filled with the heady wine of victory, and flush with resources. In the face of this, shouldn't discouragement be the order of the day? Isn't there a strong argument for throwing in the towel? Isn't this proof that the other side won?
In a word: NO!
Truth is truth - if the values and beliefs we hold are true, and certainly we believe them to be so, then it's incumbent upon us to continue advancing them, continue the struggle, to accept the challenge irrespective of any relative disparities between them and us. You fight the good fight because to do otherwise is to waste your life.
History is replete with David and Goliath stories. In 1415, a weary and dysentery-plagued English army under King Henry V bested a fresh, healthy French army of anywhere from two to five times its size at the Battle of Agincourt. Considered by many one of the greatest military triumphs of all times, the battle was immortalized two centuries later by William Shakespeare in Henry V.
In the play is as fine a motivational speech as there is in the English language, Henry's St. Crispin's Day oration delivered just prior to the battle. In it, the King acknowledges the ostensible superiority of the enemy, but rallies his men by appealing to their patriotism as Englishmen, the worth of their cause, and the future glory that will be theirs.
He expresses confidence that their numbers, small though they may be, are sufficient: "God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more."
And he scoffs at those who are absent since it is their sorry lot to miss out on the action:
"And gentlemen in England now-a-bedShall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
You cannot hear the words spoken without experiencing a chill up and down your spine. Watch the video clip of actor Kenneth Branagh as Henry V and experience it yourself.
As the scene closes, Henry utters a line that is key for us today: "All things are ready if our minds be so."
What we know, what we think, what we believe, what we set ourselves to do will be accomplished when "...our minds be so." As true today as it was then.
Abraham Lincoln said something similar in The Gettysburg Address when, after reciting the purpose for which they fought and the sacrifice of fallen soldiers, remarked, "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain."
A conscious decision - an exercise of the will - a commitment to do the necessary work no matter the cost, despite the odds. That is the level of determination we must have as we face the challenges ahead. We owe it to those who handed the torch to us and those to whom we will eventually pass it.
Lest you think this isn't relevant for today, consider the second video clip of the "Do you believe in miracles?" victory of the United States hockey team over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Playing at a time in U.S. history when America was at low ebb (Iran Hostage Crisis, oil crisis, stagflation - you name it) and humiliated on a daily basis, these college kids, mostly from Minnesota and Massachusetts, prevailed over an elite Red Army squad that had bested National Hockey League all-stars. You could again be proud to be an American because of what they did, and they did it because they believed they could - they believed in miracles.
Do you believe in miracles?
Many say it will take one for our side - our ideas, beliefs, principles - to prevail. Maybe so, but so what? Our job is to do the work assigned to us and let the results take care of themselves.
"And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground."
The Piper
Thoughts? Add Comment -
km said on Jan 02 2009 at 11:32am
Piper: Enjoyed your posting. As a Republican, working for years within a Democratically dominated institution, the teachers' union, I have some sympathy for your analogies.
Further, while I don't often agree with EFF's take on issues, I very much enjoy the interchange. I am constantly challenged by what I read here. And, like Socrates, I have come to believe that the unexamined life is not worth living.
Thank you to you and all at EFF who post here.