“Well, you see, Willard, in this war, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. But out there with these natives, it must be a temptation to be God. Because there’s a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.” General Corman, Apocalypse Now
If you are a spectator on the events of the last week, and you are still equivocating, man splaining, what-about-ing, give-him-a-chancing or just still denying, then the body snatchers have certainly taken you. Right wing media has unleashed a virus that has affected the primary Operating System of many Americans, and now they are flat out cowards. We are proud to be Americans, the country that spilled blood to rid the world of the most atrocious ideas and movements that history has ever witnessed, yet we still have sell-outs on the American ideals grasping for contortions to still support the most vile individual that has ever threw a hat into American politics. If the death of a young woman standing up to Nazis, still leaves you defending your vote, performing feats of logical acrobatics, or making up cockamamie tales of righteousness out of whole cloth to still support the Nazi Prince, his minions in the White House, and the party he comes from, then you are a sad excuse for an American. My Father quit High School in his senior year to join the Army December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He showed a courage that millions of soldiers and volunteers for the cause were somehow able to summon. A courage that could only come from a place so deep and so committed to the values and people of America, that you would willingly face the ultimate sacrifice. A courage that takes a strength that would nearly require you to realign your physical molecules to follow your convictions into danger that would have the real potential to end your life. That is real courage. Heather Heyer showed that courage. She stood in the face of hate, and took it on without flinching. Heather Heyer summoned the same courage that held the world together when the demons of hate gathered momentum in the 1940’s. What she did, took real courage. The stand she took is infinitely more powerful than any Two Minute Orwellian Hate speech at a Trump Rally. The stand she took summons us all to find the courage, integrity, presence, and will to carry out our mission to protect American values.
Whatever caused the people to be susceptible to the virus that enabled them to give the world’s most powerful sanction to a vile coward like Trump, we may never find out. We watch now as those people already ontologically pruned of principles, values or integrity, continue to spread out their reasons like a bad poker player sorting his suits. Every move is a lame attempt at comportment, every call is a feigned bluff for cover. It takes a coward to continue to dance in the devil’s moonlight this way. It takes a poltroon to continue to billow the smoke screen in hopes of obscuring the responsibility of your actions. It is bad enough that children will know that they had parents that supported such a disturbingly dastard individual. A fact that will be made even worse when they grow up watching their parents that cast this lot, make righteous claims about their obviously rancorous choice, and continue to equivocate their mantle. There is no strength in this cowardice. Watching cowards dissemble our American Democracy and continuing to shield yourself from a horrendously evil choice, is depravity. It is time to pull over. Find the better angels of your nature. Dig as deep as you can and work to show an inkling of the courage of a young woman willing to stand up to Nazis.
V.M. Smith
(Club Member)