One Mael a week and three Foights a day
The Leader we seek
Puffball Conservatism
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
I had only one full aunt. All others were of the great sort or came to be aunts by choice and contract of marriage. Each and every one of the latter is or was dear to my heart. The full aunt, though, was special.
For years, I knew she and I had a side deal that promoted me to top shelf. She was loving and cordial to all, but that was just her way. The real deal occurred between her and me. We might not see each other often, but all things were reaffirmed when I saw her.
That went on unconditionally as long as she lived. It was with a bit of incredulity, therefore, to sit through her funeral service. Each niece or nephew remembered her the same way. Even mere friends told the same story … each of us was her favorite!
In retrospect, she had the ability to make each of us believe we were the most important person in our relationship. Little did we know that the gift and image she brought was the reflection of ourselves back from her in the manner she treated us. She was elevated in our hearts and minds without ever calling attention to herself.
She had a rare gift. We loved her.
Puffball Conservatism
Many of us watched Laura Ingram interview John Sununu recently. Mr. Sununu was pressed on the Romney responses forthcoming with the continuous assault on all matters of his life while the issues that are destroying us from within are held at arms length and treated as if they are in quarantine.
Mr. Sununu finally informed Ms. Ingram that she needed to stick to her business and the pros needed to stick to the business of running Mr. Romney’s campaign. Oooohhhhh, Mr. Sununu … wrong response! There are too many of us out here who observe the same worrisome tendencies.
We find ourselves wincing constantly waiting for the next drippy answer to come forth in each successive blatant personal attack. If Mr. Romney cannot defend himself with resolute rejoinder, how will he fight for us in the life and death matters our nation faces?
As a matter of fact, Mr. Romney had better be fighting for us right now. We want him to succeed! We need him to succeed! An assault on his integrity is an assault on our integrity. His fight is our fight. We have all taken a stand because our very existence is being threatened.
Case in point … John McCain. John McCain’s puff ball conservative politics paved the way for the debacle we now face. Time and again we were offended by his answers when we desperately needed him to represent us in form and substance as our president.
He could act as he saw fit in his personal life, but there is more in being presidential than native courage and senatorial civility that is needed to inspire patriotism.
It is impossible to discuss the spirit of America apart from its consistency of leadership. If brilliance comes from the insight of a single leader, the energy and morale of its citizenry is no less dependent on the actions of that singular leader.
McCain failed us and he put us in a monumentally precarious circumstance. Like it or not, Romney is not shaping the battlefield much differently. He has yet to gather consistent, resolute energy, and, in matters of national conscience, he has yet to demonstrate the purposeful single mindedness that is infectious.
The matter of Hope and change
It has been a long time since we have felt hopeful. That is a symptom of the dilemma we face in our presidential leadership.
To be so articulate, the ongoing speeches we endure are empty. They offend, they antagonize, and they polarize. Few, if any of us, are made to feel the relationship we have with leadership that is meaningful.
We seek and we are disappointed in the outcome.
What we fear most is the absence of core honesty. We are upheld as sovereign Americans only if that most important leader believes in his heart that we are such.
It isn’t the skill or confidence of a president that inspires us. It is his unending belief in our sovereignty that impacts us, and, if we know that to be true, presidential inspiration can be contagious.
We are in the midst of a battle that will set the direction of the United States from this point forward. We have lived with the egregious theme of Hope and Change. It now rings not just discordant, but tedious and distasteful.
The need is to discard the matter of Change. Government can’t affect Change. Only free and independent men can affect Change, and the truth is Change cannot be mapped.
Hope must remain in the discussion. It is a subject of supreme importance.
The presidential Model
George Washington inspires me. His faith, his modesty, his acceptance of duty, his bond to the land, his physical presence, and his reluctance to accept accolades appeals to me. The fire in his soul, though, made him as dangerous to the opponents of our beliefs as it made him the leader we needed at that moment in history.
It is my belief that few leaders have the single mindedness that is vital to upholding our way of life. There is as much great comfort in knowing he was first and foremost a Christian … as he was our General … as he was our President.
Where he demonstrated severity of actions, those who knew him best recognized that firmness was predicated on his love for the American ideal. Those who served him in those darkest hours became heroes because Washington regarded them as such. Each of them believed they were most important in his eyes.
The outcome was what numbers and wagers failed to grasp. Free and independent men, united in honesty and respect for God, can accomplish amazing things. Our presidents must not just understand that, they must live that standard.
When Reagan was confronted with the air traffic controller strike, he convened a cabinet meeting. If you saw the footage of that meeting, you were struck with the disconnect between he and his cabinet. As those members were bantering back and forth, he was scribbling on his yellow pad. Occasionally, he would look up, but he would go back to scribbling. He was non-communicative with the rest of his staff. What we were witnessing was Reagan at his finest.
The next thing they knew, he was in front of the press disclosing his decision on the crisis. His cabinet was astounded. He had not divulged his decision to them. In the press briefing, he outlined his course of action. He judged that the law had been broken and he wasn’t going to indulge any body in that matter of national security. He was resolute. He fired the air traffic controllers!
The blazing intensity in his eyes was the same burning look that Gouverneur Morris received when he acted on a bet and slapped George Washington on the back and treated him as a casual friend. It wasn’t about Washington that offended. It was the Office of the President. Washington treated the office with as much respect and dignity as he treated a soldier who secured our liberty.
In those moments both Washington and Reagan displayed rare leadership. Once their minds were made up in matters that impacted their sworn duty to uphold the cornerstone of the American concept, the individual, they were immoveable.
Mr. Romney …
Your loyalty to your wife and your family are the very standards our American families need to see … your image and demeanor in that matter are exemplary.
Those of us who know the story of your religious heritage and doctrine don’t have the least bit of concern … embrace the story and the outcome.
Your business acumen is essential to our fiscal crisis … we need your instinct.
Your reluctance to promote your giving and charitable endeavors is at once reassuring and proper … we can even define the scripture.
Your core background in the private sector is vital … we cannot continue to grow government.
If you are our leader, your success will come not from all things visible but the passion that you bring to bear at times of need. Resolution, untiring energy, and unhesitating audacity when core principles are at risk are the qualities we desperately need.
Mr. Romney, you have the credentials to be our president. Show that passion in your eyes and actions, and … we will move mountains.
Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “It was an Irish regiment in the Civil War that described true leadership when they referred to their general and said … “(We will follow you with) one mael a week and three foights a day (if you just lead us).”
THE WESTERNER sez:
A quote from George Washington:
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
Savor that quote. Read it slow, think it through and apply it to our current situation.
More Washington quotes for your contemplation:
Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the supineness or venality of their constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to show, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other.
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
That "sacred fire of liberty"...is it still burning?
And how I wish governments everywhere would agree with Washington's edict:
The only stipulations I shall contend for are, that in all things you shall do as you please. I will do the same; and that no ceremony may be used or any restraint be imposed on any one.
No comments:
Post a Comment