Some advice for my American friends who traveled from Vally Forge to the shores of the Sea of Tranquility;
( Written by Bob Lonsberry, commentator on 1180 WHAM Rochester New York)
QUIT YOUR BELLYACHING
[How about some courage.
How about we handle this like Americans. How about we stand up on our own two feet and just tell the world to bring it on.
I’m getting a little tired of the whining. I’ve heard just about as many predictions of the end of the world as I have the stomach for and I’d like to change the subject.
Specifically, I’d like to remind us all that we are not a nation of pansies, so we ought to stop acting like it.
We’ve gotten so far into the victimhood swamp that we want to sit down and cry about our booboos the first time the winds of fortune blow the wrong way. Lately, it seems like the media and the politicians are tag-teaming us into a sort of national group therapy where we sit around and weep about how bad we have it and how much worse it’s going to get.
So here’s my suggestion: Pull your head out and quit acting like a baby.
I don’t really need another forecast of how bad things are going to get. I don’t need one more talk-show host’s ramblings about how the aching in his joints makes him think the sky is about to fall. I’m just tired of that wimpy and weepy crud.
So here’s the straight scoop: The world is not going to end, and if it does, we’re not going down without a fight.
We are not a bunch of veal calves blatting for a rubber nipple, we are Americans. We sailed the seas to get here – on the Mayflower or in the belly of a slave ship. Either way, we are not shrinking violets. We are the descendants of people who went through a whole lot worse than we could ever dream of going through, people who would look at our current difficulties and say they’d gladly trade places with us.
We’ve got to remember that we didn’t get to be where we are by falling off a turnip truck. We had to wrestle a continent into submission – fighting Indians most of the way – and we had to face difficulty and danger, and overcome hardship every step of the journey. This country didn’t get built by people who were afraid of their shadow. It was built by people who knew how to take – and give – a punch.
So quit acting like a baby.
Get your nose out of the daily up and down of the stock market, quit scratching through the Bible looking for applicable prophecies, forget about some possible future collapse, live in the real world, in the here and now, and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Because there’s nothing coming that we can’t handle. There is no unclimbable mountain in our future. And, yes, circumstance and government do combine to make our current situation pretty tight, but if a people and a country can’t stand up to a pretty tight situation, and come out on top, stronger and smarter for it, then they don’t deserve to survive.
We’ve had too much Mr. Rogers and Dr. Phil and we’ve lost our mettle. Or at least that’s what they want you to believe. They want you to believe that it’s all too much, that you can’t survive, much less win. They tell us we need to get in touch with our feelings and turn to our feminine side and work on consensus and team building. We’ve politically corrected all the starch out of our collective resolve. We don’t have the spine to stand up to a stiff breeze.
Simply put, we need to man-up. We need to cinch up our belt and roll up our sleeves and just start swinging. We need to remind the world – and ourselves – that Americans don’t go down without a fight. We’ve got to stop taking counsel of our fears and take strength from our courage.
And we need to stop asking for and expecting a handout. Throughout our history, the great challenges facing our nation have been resolved by the great strength of our people. Now we demand a solution from the government. We wish the government to be stronger and smarter than we ourselves are willing to be. It is the great mommy whose skirts we hide behind, who we want to kiss our ouchies and make them better.
But that bird won’t fly. That thinking is the thinking of weakness, and when times are tough, the weak are destroyed and the strong endure. Those are harsh words, but history proves them to be true. To the extent Americans and their country are strong, they will endure whatever difficulties lie ahead. To the extent Americans and consequently their country are weak, they will be ground down and destroyed by whatever difficulties lie ahead.
So quit being a baby. Quit your whining and feeling sorry for yourself. Stand up and be an American.
The world is not ending, the sky is not falling, these are not the worst of times. We’ve faced worse than this and we’ll do so again.
If we don’t cry ourselves to death. If we don’t let fear paralyze us. If we don’t throw away our strength and clutch weakness.
We are Americans, but we’re not acting like it. It’s time to stand up and show a little class and a little courage.
Quit crying and start fighting. That’s what Americans do.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2008](“http://www.lonsberry.com/email_columns.cfm”)
