Home of the Brave?

by Ruth A. Sheets

The last five words of the National Anthem are “the home of the brave.”  I know that the poet was specifically referring to military courage, but I suspect that most Americans, whether or not they have a military bent, would like to see themselves as brave.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about courage.  It seems to me that it does not take courage to do what everyone else in your group is doing.  You get support of numbers.  If it is a popular action or stance, it’s even easier.  You’ll even be given the words to say.

It doesn’t take courage to be racist in America even if you call it something else.  A knee jerk hatred of President Obama or blaming poor people for their condition and plotting to cut programs which enable them to survive is not brave.

It doesn’t take courage to oppose all tax increases, even small rate raises for the richest among us,  because we Americans don’t seem to mind getting a lot and not paying for it.  We buy the myth that anyone can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”  We allow ourselves to be convinced that the wealthy just worked harder and smarter than anyone else, so deserve all they have.

It doesn’t take courage to filibuster these days in our Senate because you don’t even need to show up.  Most of the time, no one knows who even brought the filibuster.  All business can be blocked by Senators who don’t want anyone to know who did the blocking.

It doesn’t take courage to stand up in front of the media claiming that the way to protect our kids in school from gunmen is to have armed teachers and guards in all our schools when you have a powerful lobbying organization behind you.  No one who counts in your world will tell you just how stupid that idea is.

So, where is courage in America these days?  I have been despairing for some time, but I find that when I look around, courage shows up in all kinds of places.  The sad part for me is that those places don’t seem to include government, whether local, state, or federal.  A current fashion seems to be sowing fear wherever possible.  Then, folks in power, usually conservatives, legislate to relieve those invented or exaggerated fears to increase their own power.  Where is the courage in that?

Courage is people who are willing to take risks for folks who at that moment cannot help themselves.  If we are indeed the “home of the brave,” we need to be out there standing with and for those who need us to help them overcome.