The "Paine" We Must Heed

Are these the “times that try” the souls of men and women? In December 1776, at “the Crisis” of the American Revolution, a matter of days before the Battle of Trenton, writer Thomas Paine penned similar words in an essay of the same title. During the down days of the Revolution, his army outnumbered 20-1, cold, hungry, in rags with blooded, bare feet, General Washington had all of his thinning regiments lined up to listen to listen to “the Crisis.”
In 1776, Paine declared five months after Independence that the catastrophe in the New York/New Jersey campaign put the American rebellion against the Crown of England in dire jeopardy. Paine declared that saving the July 4th Declaration required the utmost courage, determination, and effort of all who wished to live free of the British Parliament’s tyranny. But it was not time for “sunshine Patriots;” they readily swayed with the wind of opinion and favored whatever army close enough to hurt them or protect their property. Paine more than anything in “the Crisis” demanded what he asked those very same wind-shifting, temperate weather loud mouths the previous spring when he wrote “Common Sense,” that particular clarion and convincing call for complete separation from Great Britain and its King George III.
In both “Common Sense” and “the Crisis,” Paine asked that people clearly see the evil to Creation’s order of “the abuses and ursurpations” (a quote from Jefferson’s Declaration) committed by England in stripping the American colonies of their rights, their safety and their power; to make the decision to act, decisively, irrevocably, and with oaken-like conviction. In the spring, he asked his compatriots to be brave and act on words. In the winter, he asked for hope and faith, but even more he demanded that those who had done the most talking, griping, and moaning to SUPPORT THOSE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FIGHT FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE.
With the Continental “army” of 1500 fired in their spirit, the story is well-known. Victory at Trenton and survival. Men and women did not lose heart. And they put “their lives, fortunes and sacred honors” (I’m borrowing again liberally from Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration) into an all but lost effort of saving the country, of saving liberty at its birth.
People gripe, complain, and bellyache about politics. But, really, most of it has a superficial grasp of the “real issues.” And how many people lead by action–decisively as individuals within their own communities–to make the only difference where land meets people.
If Americans had their head in the clouds, they wouldn’t notice the dark storm building over the world. Everything is in transition: all political power, economic ownership, social classes, and our the very culture of liberty that always gave the United States of America the moral advantage to do what was needed, necessary, and right, and do it proper and right in the process.
There is an election this fall (primary in September in Wisconsin, and a general Presidential election in November). Don’t be fooled and misled by false witness or “gravened” faces, which are everywhere in the media. Why would we not do now–within ourselves, our homes, our friends, and neighbors–something truly extraordinary, yet not just on election day, but 24/7 now until we change the world one person at one time. Hard? Jesus started with but one.
My advice has been the same for 15 years–inform oneself better; be open-minded and tolerant of opposing viewpoints. Second, take your personal decision, then act in any peaceful, non-violent way possible, up to and including civil disobedience and non-conformity to take the power away from those who stole much of it, and plan to steal it all.
Wake up, People of America!! See things for what they really are. Unite!! Act!!! And prevail.