One of my favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln is “the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”
Every “present” is stormy to some degree, some more so than others. Our present day is no different.
Every generation faces a choice when it comes to FEAR–Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise.
Winston Churchill believed that his generation, instead of lamenting the times they lived in, should be grateful for the opportunity and the honor to be the ones to defend democracy.
Do I wish there weren’t dark clouds gathered over our democracy? Of course.
There are so many other things I’d rather be spending my time on than how to defend and improve our republic, but we cannot choose the times we live in, we can only make the best of them.
Every moment in the life of a nation, or an individual, can be seen as the darkest moment or the brightest moment. Usually both are present. And it is our opportunity, by the way we respond, to determine what we make of it.
I have full faith in this generation of Americans to overcome the evil lure of fascism and Trumpism.
We have faced far worse in our past and we shall overcome this stormy present too.
I’m currently reading John Lewis’ autobiography “Walking With The Wind”, and early on he explains the title.
It comes from his childhood and how one day a really bad storm came through rural Alabama and his aunt had him, his siblings, and cousins, about 9 of them in total, walk hand in hand from one corner of the aunt’s one room rickety wooden home to the other as the tornadic winds tried to rip the home up, and their weight counterbalanced it and the home survived the storm.
In our stormy present we must continue to walk hand in hand and face the winds of hatred together.
Perry Waag 