Courage gone missing

In the Epoch Times, Roger Kimball writes,

Long ago, Aristotle pointed out that courage is the most important virtue because without courage we are are unable to practice any of the other virtues. Courage has been in notably short supply in Western countries in recent months as people have allowed petty bureaucrats to turn them into sheep who obediently quiver in place and refuse to be seen out-of-doors without a mask.

Hooligans and anarchists, seizing on the spurious excuse of the death of a black man in police custody, have rampaged across the country destroying property, attacking the police, and terrorizing ordinary citizens.

A statue of Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln has nothing to do with the death of the unfortunate George Floyd, neither, for that matter, do statues of Robert E. Lee or Andrew Jackson.

Read more here.

"He chose how he felt, he wasn’t going to waste time bemoaning his plight, he refused to allow his circumstances to define his dignity, he wasn’t going to give in to self-pity, and he sure as hell wouldn’t allow me to do that as his proxy."

Tom Koulopoulos writes in Innovation Excellence about his years caring for a person named Ali who was quadriplegic.

...What Ali taught me were invaluable lessons we all need to learn: that life is not supposed to be fair; that complaining about our situation is wasted energy; that we always have a choice about how we play the cards we are dealt; and that our attitude is not determined by anything other than our own thoughts.

...He chose how he felt, he wasn’t going to waste time bemoaning his plight, he refused to allow his circumstances to define his dignity, he wasn’t going to give in to self-pity, and he sure as hell wouldn’t allow me to do that as his proxy.

If I could list all of the lessons those years taught me I’d be writing a book, not an Inc.com post. So here are the seven most important ones. As you read them think of your own life experiences and ask yourself how you measure up.

1. How you think is how you will feel.
When we find ourselves in situations that cause us to feel depressed, anxious, or angry, our first response can be to find someone or something to blame. We look outside for something to change to make us feel different inside.

2. Others ultimately see you as you see yourself.

3. Complaining is like trying to get out of a hole by using a shovel instead of a ladder.

4. Life isn’t fair and it’s not supposed to be.
...Does fairness challenge you to be creative, to evolve and grow, to reinvent yourself?

...Lesson: Instead of labeling events as fair or unfair think of everything that happens in life, no matter how hard, as an opportunity to learn and grow?

5. Giving up is always an option.
...Lesson: Give yourself credit for not giving up because many others already have.

6. Courage is understanding the only thing you control is how you respond.
Lesson: The situation is not always yours to choose, but your response always is.

7. The greater your discomfort the greater your opportunity to grow.
Lesson: We learn best and grow most when we are challenged and uncomfortable.

In what was one of life’s greatest acts of unfairness, Ali came down with an infection and passed away just weeks before my college graduation. In so many ways, some that I’m still just beginning to realize, I learned lessons from him that have endured longer than those learned in the classrooms and hallowed halls of my alma mater.

On my nightstand for the past four decades has stood a tiny plastic statue that Ali gave me. It me reminds me every morning and night that I have no reason to complain, that life’s greatest lessons about courage, strength, and dignity aren’t learned when we are comfortable, but taught in the midst of life’s greatest discomfort and adversities, by circumstances that none of us would call fair, but which, in the end, are the circumstances that shape and define who we are.

You know what? That’s fair enough!

Read more here.

Courage

In the Mill Street Gazette, Adam Mill writes,

...As liberals fawn over Anonymous or Rod Rosenstein and their alleged “courage” for standing up to Donald Trump, I’m left to ask, “What courage?” It takes no courage to join the 91% of anti-Trump media or the duplicitous never-Trumper Administration Officials who undermine the elected president for cheap applause at Washington cocktail parties. Using your office in the executive branch to oppose Trump while pretending to work for the Administration is cowardly, dishonorable, and anti-democratic.

But, among the leftist mob, a few true heroes have begun to walk away. Imagine being a liberal resisting the get-Trump mob that is increasingly irrational? Now that’s courage and I want to take a moment to celebrate a few honorable and courageous liberals and Democrats who have risked everything to stand alone in opposition to the dangerous anti-Trump mob:

1. Fareed Zakaria: Mr. Zakaria is a reliable liberal and Trump critic. He nevertheless authored an op ed in the liberal Washington Post decrying the increasing trend of leftists to shout down or censor their opponents. Zakaria wrote, “freedom for the thought we hate is under pressure in the United States-and from the left.” He also quoted one of my heroes, John Stuart Mill to warn against the Left’s tendency to “impose…its own ideas and practices…on those who dissent from them.” I can almost hear the dinner party invitations being torn in half. My heart soared with hope upon reading his rare voice of reason. Thank you, Mr. Zakaria.

2. The 9th Circuit sides with Trump supporters in riot civil rights case. The 9th Circuit has applied the law to protect the speech rights of Trump supporters who were attacked during a peaceful protest. In the belly of the beast, some of the most liberal judges ever to don a robe had the guts to tell the mob that the deplorables have the right to peacefully speak and assemble.

3. Alan Dershowitz: Dershowitz, a card-carrying liberal from the day he first drew breath, is perhaps the most consistent hero challenging the left’s attacks on civil liberties. In an Op Ed in the Hill last April, he shamed the ACLU in a beautiful piece exposing how the ACLU turns a blind eye to violations of civil liberties if it helps get Trump. His liberal peers heap scorn on him and treat him like a traitor.

4. Michael E. Horowitz: Mr. Horowitz serves as the Inspector General of the Department of Justice. President Obama appointed him in 2012. Yet, he has been one of the most important forces that exposed the bias and election interference of the FBI/DoJ. He continues to do vital work to hold the Department of Justice accountable. Without the honorable work of Mr. Horowitz, we would not have seen the Strzok/Page text messages. Mr. Horowitz is undoubtedly reviled within the party who appointed him. His courage is unparalleled.

5. Jack Dorsey: In spite of significant pressure to drop President Trump from Twitter, Dorsey has continued to allow the President access to the platform to directly reach the American public. Recently he made this astonishing admission, “We have a lot of conservative-leaning folks in the company as well, and to be honest, they don’t feel safe to express their opinions at the company…They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company, and I don’t think that’s fair or right,” he added. “We should make sure that everyone feels safe to express themselves within the company, no matter where they come from and what their background is. I mean, my dad was a Republican.” Can you imagine the leftists he triggered by insisting that non-leftist speech should be accommodated? This may seem like a simple thing. But in Mr. Doresey’s environment, this was tremendously courageous.

6. The Facebook 100: A small group of 100 Facebook employees have joined together to form an online group supporting political diversity within Facebook. Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer bravely wrote, “We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.” Not surprisingly, their peers at Facebook have declared their speech “offensive to minorities,” and have sought to silence the rebels.

These liberals are all alone. But they shouldn’t be. They are true American heroes speaking real truth to the real power of the dangerous mob. Instead of arguing with the mob, we can best resist it by finding more honest liberals like these and lifting them up. We need them now more than ever. Shine a light on their examples as they walk away from the mob. Others will follow.

Read more here.

Courage

Glenn Reynolds links to a piece by Thomas Lifson at American Thinker, reporting that Milo Yiannopoulus plans to return to UC Berkeley. Glenn then posts at Instapundit this poster of Little Rock.

Do you know what Charles Koch stands for?

Why does the Left hate this man? Helping people help themselves. Permissionless innovation. Get rid of corporate welfare. Freedom of speech. Help children learn their aptitude. Integrity, humility, work ethic, responsibility, courage. The left hates Mr. Koch like we on the right hate George Soros. Mike Rowe interviews Charles Koch.

Muslims speaking out for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state.

Many of us have been wondering for years whether there will ever be a time when Muslims speak out against political Islam. Well, it is happening. I just caught the tail end of a segment of talk radio in which 710 KNUS host Craig Silverman interviewed Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. I am sure the podcast will be available either later today or tomorrow on KNUS. Silverman is a great host who asks incisive questions.

Victimhood isn't the only response

In his USA Today column Glenn Reynolds writes about the actions of three American young men on the high speed train in Europe:

The purpose of terror is to terrorize. But responding appropriately has the opposite effect. The response of British businessman Chris Norman, who helped subdue the attacker, illustrates this: “Norman said his first reaction was to hide," The Fiscal Times reported. "But after he saw the Americans fighting the attacker, he said he went to help them.”

Fear is contagious. But so is courage. People should respond not like a herd of sheep but like a pack of wolves. When the follow-up report on the 2001 attacks came out, J.B. Schramm noted in The Washington Post that "on Sept. 11, 2001, American citizens saved the government, not the other way around.” Intelligence agencies failed. Air defense systems failed. But: “Requiring less time than it took the White House to gather intelligence and issue an attack order (which was in fact not acted on), American citizens gathered information from national media and relayed that information to citizens aboard the flight, who organized themselves and effectively carried out a counterattack against the terrorists, foiling their plans. Armed with television and cellphones, quick-thinking, courageous citizens who were fed information by loved ones probably saved the White House or Congress from devastation.”

Nonetheless, when the government reacted, the money went into enriching and strengthening those bureaucracies instead of, as Schramm urged, educating and training American citizens. Perhaps this latest incident will serve as a reminder that there is another way. At the very least, it should remind citizens that while you can’t rely on the government to be everywhere you are, you yourself are always there.

Read more here.

Protecting those who protect us

That's what St. Louis University nursing student decided to do in Ferguson, Missouri the other night.



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Islamic imperialism's varied strategies

Mark Steyn writes,

Speaking of Islamic imperialism's varied strategies, ten years ago this September an obscure Jutland newspaper published the Danish Mohammed cartoons, and opened up a new front in the clash of civilizations: free speech and jokes. The inarticulate goon imams threatened to rain down death hither and yon, and then began actually doing so. Given that the media are incessantly congratulating themselves on their courage, I carelessly assumed they would welcome the opportunity to show some, and would reprint those cartoons as part of a legitimate news story. In fact, only my magazine in Canada, Ezra Levant's Western Standard, and a satirical weekly in France, Charlie Hebdo, dared to show readers what all the fuss was about. Ezra was prosecuted by the disgusting Alberta "Human Rights" Commission and lost a six-figure sum. The Charlie Hebdo guys lost their lives.

On the fifth anniversary, I had the honor to appear in Copenhagen with a handful of friends from Scandinavia, the Netherlands and elsewhere at a conference to consider the question of Islam and comedy. There were six of us on stage that day: our host Lars Hedegaard, the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, the pseudonymous Dutch cartoonist Nekschot, the comedians Shabana Rehman and Farshad Kholghi, and me. Nekschot, for security reasons, was obliged to appear disguised in a burqa, and has since been forced to abandon his identity and the cartooning life entirely; Lars Hedegaard dodged a shot at point blank range by a man at his front door who subsequently fled to Turkey, where they're refusing to extradite. Lars Vilks was the target of the jihadist attack on a free-speech event in Copenhagen this Valentine's Day in which a Danish film-maker and a synagogue security guard were killed, and so he too has been obliged to retire from public life. Shabana Rehman has had her family restaurant firebombed. So, of the six of us, that's an impressive 67 per cent hit rate for Islam.

But I'm still here and I love my beleaguered Scandinavian friends, and so I will be in Copenhagen for the tenth anniversary of the Danish cartoons. I will miss those who can't be there, either because they're dead or have had their public lives erased, but I will salute those who will be, including the editor who commissioned and published those pictures, Flemming Rose. It's important to keep the flame of free speech burning in Europe, and in Denmark in particular. Because all you can do as the weasels and cowards of the fin de civilisation west trade away freedom of expression incrementally day by day is to stand up and use yours as loudly as you can. Copenhagen's a nifty 20-minute high-speed train ride across the Øresund Bridge from Sweden and a short flight from Paris and London, so, if you're minded to swing by, I'd love to see you there. It's the afternoon of September 26th.

Bringing good news to your day

Jennifer Malone explains for mailonline,

This is the moment an off-duty firefighter wrestled a knife-wielding thief to the ground after he tried to hold up a grocery store.

Former Marine Daniel Gaskey took down the masked robber and pinned him to the floor until police arrived at the Oasis Food Store in Midlothian, Texas.

The suspect, 19-year-old Dylan Bearden, was then arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, police said.

Read more here.

Bravery

thanks to Ace of Spades

Are you a cynic?

Whittle: "Cynicism is easy, fun, and it makes you sound smart and cool. It's also a way to protect yourself from being heartbroken...again. But cynicism is a bill that's too high to pay. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cynicism is the cowardice of people who are unwilling tos take a claim for something good happening."

Klaven: "It's realism that we're looking for."

Even the shadows can't help but speak of His light

Ann Voskamp reminds us that

there’s a bridge in the middle of it all — a way through. Grace is a bridge that has no weight limits.

Grace will bear the weight of the burdens — the weight you carry, the wounds you bear, the world you feel on your shoulders.

All the shadows we all live with everywhere just prove there is Light.

Even the shadows here can’t help but speak of His Light.

Please read more here.

Suck it up!

Are you raising your boys to be failures in life? "Daddy" writes at Return of the Kings that

modern education teaches boys that it’s more important to feel, to experience and to communicate their emotions, to pay attention to them and give them importance, when those sentiments should instead be tamed like a wild beast. How many of the feminist authors of these Sunday afternoon theories had any deep understanding of how men function? Emotional mastery doesn’t happen by mistake, by just living and growing older. A constant effort is required. It is first enabled by a collective understanding of what makes a man a man, then maintained by peer pressure to shame behaviors that don’t conform to this understanding.

By applying feel good, lazy unproven feminist theories that contradict hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and folk wisdom, parents prevent their boys practicing and acquiring the necessary self-control to be successful men. An upbringing that teaches them to marinate in emotional states will cripple them and prevent them from becoming adults. It’s no wonder that many boys linger in mental adolescence as long as possible to avoid life challenges that seem unbeatable given their stunted growth. They hide in their basement to play video games only to become unwanted failures.

No fear

One of our female employees at work today was yelling, "Sir" repeated to a tall man as he was pushing his cart toward the exit. He pretended not to hear her, but everyone else could hear her fine. She finally caught up to him and asked if he had a receipt for his purchases. He told her that the machine at the self check out area did not give him a receipt. Another female employee heard him say that and told him to wait right there, while she went to check the machine. There was no receipt because he had made no purchases.

Meanwhile the first female subtley moved between him and the door. The second female returned to tell him why there was no receipt. He turned the cart over to the first female and left the store.

I told the first female that I admired her courage in confronting him, and that she did not show any fear. She said, "I'm not afraid of anyone. Fear just gets in your way!" Then she remembered that there is one person she is afraid of, a MMA fighter named Rhonda Rousy.

I told the second female how I admired her fearlessness. She said, "Why be afraid? If he hit me, I would get to go home...with pay!"