from top right: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan
Fear, in the right circumstances, is the most powerful of defenses. In the wrong circumstances, fear is more dangerous than the most intrepid of weapons.
“There ought to be some black cows out there on them pastures.” My grandpa was a man with strong principals, a temper, and a knack for leadership. He tended to plant bold visions in my mind.
Wendell Weller graduated with his high school diploma in my hometown of Urbana with a class of twelve kids. He grew up on his family’s land, Maple Lane Farm, and before he knew it, he was serving in the Army Air Corps where he suffered a back injury and was honorably discharged.
Wendell, with no college degree and only farming on his resume, went on to become the chairman of Nationwide Communications Inc. (which owned and operated numerous radio and TV stations) and was on the Board of Directors for Nationwide for nearly thirty years. Today, Nationwide is one of the 100 largest corporations in the world.
How could a man with such humble beginnings advance to a major leadership position inside of a massive American company?
Wendell Weller never let fear control him. His son, my father, went on to reinvent the family farm and ensure that I learned the value of arduous work.
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” President John F. Kennedy.
I lived in Fort Lauderdale for several months about two years ago. While I was there, I had the privilege of meeting Brad, that’s the name he went by anyway, who was a nineteen-year-old, Russian immigrant.
Brad came to America because he wanted, “a chance to survive,” and to “earn enough money to get an education and then maybe a good job.” He left Russia for fear of persecution or worse because he is gay.
Brad was working at a male strip club to pay his part of the rent with his six roommates. He told me that he didn’t like his job, but most people didn’t want to hire a gay Russian immigrant. Nevertheless, he felt “blessed to be in the land of never say die.”
Today, Brad is enrolled at one of Florida’s best universities and is managing a restaurant. He plans to become a journalist.
“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When is the last time you did something hard? I am talking about something that required absolute resolve and unwavering faith. Now ask yourself, ‘when is the last time I did something hard voluntarily?’ For most of us, it has probably been a long time and for some us maybe we have never willingly done something difficult.
It doesn’t come naturally for humans to choose the hard path, the path that is feared. Americans have had many leaders who faced the fears of this nation. Who, in the face of incalculable odds, chose the unpopular route. They chose to lead.
Too often, we confuse our elected officials’ responsibility to be speaking for us instead of leading us.
Sure, you could blame big banks, the media, special interest groups, corruption, greed, lobbyists, and a whole host of other issues, but despite common belief, those aren’t unfamiliar problems for America.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “…the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing.”
Greed was a major contributing factor to the Great Depression and was again for the more recent Great Recession. Today Americans seem unwilling to recognize the power of change and the power for a better future.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide,” President John Adams.
Instead of going to the moon and finding the next challenge we spend our time bickering and seeing who can shout the loudest on social media. Since when was patriotism rooted in a lack of welcoming for immigrants, gays, blacks, and other minorities? And since when was change accomplished by shunning others’ help just because they don’t share the same challenges?
It is time to wake up and listen to the words of President Ronald Reagan, “…there are no Republicans, no Democrats, just Americans.” We are always so quick to cite history as justification for our actions and the reason why we should never budge from our opinions, yet we don’t take the time to examine what history actually teaches us.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves,” President Abraham Lincoln.
It is time for a new American. Each of our country’s great leaders left a legacy which established the ideals that have carried us to now, but we can’t simply rely on the past. It is our responsibility to forge the future.
You must choose to do the hard things. You must choose to listen to your friend’s position with an open mind. You must choose to thank them for disagreeing with you. You must choose to call your congressman. You must choose to run for office. You must choose to respect your fellow Americans. And you must choose to make a difference.
The Millennials are here. It's our turn, our time. We can no longer dwell on the mistakes of generations past. We must choose to prove that we too can lead. We can fix health care, reinvent the American dream, educate our children, end partisanship, bring stability to the world, and once again reach for the stars. We must choose to do these things, “…not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Let us not forget that we, the people of the United States, give our leaders the power and we can demand changes. Let us choose to demand those changes now.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
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