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Courage



Courage often lies with daring the impossible. The word originated from Medieval French meaning "heart and spirit," because courage requires a brave heart and a courageous spirit. True courage means facing down an impossible situation. It means defying conventional wisdom, the voices of authority, social pressures and sometimes even common sense to do what is right.

The media today excels at telling us what to think and what to believe. What good 'normal' ideas we should hold, as opposed to the evil 'extremist' ones. What attitudes are acceptable and what attitudes are unacceptable. For many the media has become the voice of conscience suppressing the human conscience within. It has usurped the role of G-d, the role of our parents and our teachers. It takes courage to defy these things.

For those who have adopted the normative positions of the media as truth defiance is extremism and the defier an extremist. To step outside their box, to hold to actual values and beliefs is to be such terrible terms as a fundamentalist, an extremist, an evil person.

To defy the authorities who forget that they are the servants of the people and not its masters takes a particular form of courage. The men who overthrew imperial tyranny and set up a great nation on the American continent had that courage. So did those who set up Israel once. Today that courage lies not in the timorous President who defends Islam and spends hundreds of millions of dollars to appease terrorists or with the corrupt Olmert regime which sends out thugs in black to beat up children. It is with those like the Minutemen or the settlers who still are ready and willing to defend their nations, even at the cost of defying the mass will of the media, politicians and intellectual elites; that courage still lies.

Comments

  1. But today is the day of lukewarm, apathetic attitudes.
    People watch but keep silent.
    Unless the silent majority wakes up and vocalizes their opposition the evil in this world will win (albeit for only a short time).
    People are not hot enough to spur to action, nor cold enough to turn away. The result is a sleepy concern that goes no where.
    If every American Jew would write their congressmen and the President and to Olmert, saying not one cent, not one vote till you stop, there might be some change.
    But evil rulers rely on a public who is lukewarm.

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  2. Anonymous12/3/06

    Exactly LLM. We live in an apathetic world. For those who do not believe in G-d it's even worse. They feel they can engage in all manner of evil conduct with total impunity without fear of consequences.

    During the expulsions from Gaza in August many friends in my jewish converts support group sent out emails to protest and voice their opposition. And we all signed our full names. None wanted Hashem to view us as remaining silent. We didn't want to be counted among those who were silent and different to the suffering of His people.

    That's why I say people should protest whenever they see an injustice. Did writing an email to PM Sharon or the Israeli ambassador impact anything one way or the other? Probably not, but get enough people to express righteous indignation, anger and opposition it can. And at the very least, it let's Hashem know where you stand; that you are supporting his people.

    Excellent post SK. And that photo accompanying the post is incredible.

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