Or Cult of Chickens
Profiles in Courage came out in 1956. John Kennedy, Ted Sorensen, Jules Davids, et al were the authors of this book. Nevertheless, Kennedy was the only one given a Pulitzer Prize the following year for that bestseller.
Last week, I wrote about Denzel Washington’s commencement address and mentioned that he and I have similar ideas about life. The major difference between his style and mine is that he uses more visual and vivid terms in this writing.
As I wrote this tribute to three Americans, I played with various titles for this essay. I wondered what Washington would have used if he were writing this essay. This is the most visual and vivid title that I was able to muster, Trinity of Guts. My trinity of three Americans consists of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Liz Cheney.
Each member of my trinity came from Republican backgrounds. Interestingly, they are very conservative Republicans. For example, McCain, Romney, Cheney, and I have very little in common politically. However, each of them had the guts to speak truth to power.
When I remember McCain, I remember two events in his life that I will never forget. McCain and Obama were running for the presidency in 2008. At one of McCain’s rallies, two supporters confronted him and voiced their dislike for Obama.
The second event was Trump’s attempt to repeal Obamacare. McCain stood up to Donald the Dumb and voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
I don’t know a better word for McCain courage than guts…sheer guts. He had the guts to stand up for what is right. There are very few Republicans like McCain.
The second person making up the Trinity of Guts is Mitt Romney. Again, there isn’t much about which he and I agree on politically, except standing up to Trump.
Interestingly, Romney received the annual Profile in Courage Award, because he too spoke truth to power.
The third Republican of my Trinity of Guts is Liz Cheney. Honestly, Cheney is much further to the right than either McCain or Romney. However, Cheney voted to impeach Trump on February 3, 2021. That didn’t go over well with Trump and his lemmings. Nevertheless, the House Republican Conference voted not to remove her from her leadership position.
However, that was in February. Cheney could be ousted by next week. “My vote to impeach was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution. Wyoming citizens know that this oath does not bend or yield to politics or partisanship. I will always fight for Wyoming values and stand up for our Western way of life.”
McCain, Romney, and Cheney form my Trinity of Guts. There is more to one’s character than political ideas, and it starts with speaking the truth. We can all learn how to build character from the Trinity of Guts. The alternative is to members of the Cult of the Chickens.
Additionally, Theodore Roosevelt’s address at the Sorbonne in Paris paralleled the Trinity of Guts. This paragraph is from his speech and is called by historians the Man in the Arena paragraph.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
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05/05/21
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