The Marines Aren’t the Only Ones

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. – Martin Luther King Jr.

I guess it’s because we recently celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on top of the fact that today’s Muhammad Ali’s birthday, but I’ve been thinking a lot about bravery, boldness, and guts.  By contrast, I’ve been thinking about cowardliness and meekness.  The two aforementioned me epitomized bravery and redefined boldness.

Whether every single person agreed with them or not wasn’t the issue – everyone knew where they stood.  Everyone knew what they stood for, they didn’t have to guess or read between the lines.

I’d rather an individual have ZERO beliefs than to have beliefs and keep them under wraps for fear of what others will say or think.  People like this are cowards and are a disgrace to the causes or beliefs they supposedly hold.

Take Tim Tebow, for example.  Whether people agree with him or not, everyone knows Who he believes in and Who he has dedicated his life to.

Personally, I think it takes a borderline nitwit to have a problem with that. Seriously? With all the disgusting sport’s stories we read about, people are going to say negative things about a young man who’s a devout Christian? One who spends so much time with sick kids?  One who does nothing AT ALL to bring disgrace to his team, his sport, or his family?

I once heard that, very often, the people we choose to hate has more to do with US than THEM. Whew, I’m glad I don’t hate Tim Tebow, I wouldn’t want to know what that said about me.

This post may be a little all over the place (not even halfway into it, I”ve gone from a civil rights leader to a boxing legend, to a quarterback), and I apologize for that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is this:  We have a lot of ills in our society that need to be taken care of.  From Alzheimer’s Disease to child abuse, there are countless diseases and social issues that, to borrow from the Marines, need a few good men.  Naturally, in this instance, I mean men and women.

If everyone keeps pussyfooting around, scared to death of stepping on anyone’s toes – nothing’s going to get done. Cowards accomplish nothing.

• If you’re a Christian, say so!  Why should any of us who are Christians hesitate for a second to say so?  We didn’t do anything wrong!!!
• If you’re Catholic, say so!  Again, you haven’t done anything wrong!
• Whatever your beliefs are, don’t be ashamed of them or afraid of what people will think.  Think about it, do you really care what bigoted, narrow minded people think? If you do, then that’s the first problem you need to address.

Don’t be a coward, for crying out loud. Don’t refer to God as “a higher power” or “the universe.”   Here’s the thing with people who do that:

• Either they don’t believe in God, but do believe that there is something which is a higher power. Elvis? Yeti? A Ninja?
• Or maybe they don’t believe that there is a God, and the Bible was completely mistaken – however, the “universe” DOES wheel and deal with people’s fortunes and misfortunes.  Perchance the moon is in charge of good luck, the stars control bad luck, and the planets deal with reprobates.

Wouldn’t they be better off just using the old fallback Karma?

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan. – Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am being a little nasty. But when you’ve been reading (like I have) a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. you lose zero tolerance for fence sitters.  At a time when there was so much bigotry, prejudice, and racial tension in our country, this black man didn’t sit on his hands, hoping someone else would take care of the problem.  He didn’t think, “Uh Oh, if I say something, what will people think?”  He stood up. He spoke out. He rocked the world.  The hatred that killed him didn’t have the last word.  What would his haters have thought if someone had told them that one day this man would have his own holiday?! That little boys and girls would learn about him alongside other heroes and heroines in history class?

I’ve never kept my own beliefs a secret from anyone – but I’d be willing to fight for anyone else to have the freedom to express their beliefs, whether or not they line up with mine.

The majority of this post has dealt with religion and Spiritual beliefs, but boldness actually entails other areas as well.  Boldness is being able to stand up and do the right thing, in the right way. It’s believing in yourself, enough to know that what you feel is important.  What you say matters because you matter.  Throw timidity and cowardice aside and boldly be who you are and say what you feel.  Make this the year you come out of your shell and crush the shell fragments under your feet. Grind them into the ground!

If everyone boldly stood up for their beliefs, then the one’s who actually DO wouldn’t be so rare.  They wouldn’t be like beacons of light in darkness, they’d just be beautiful lights in a sea of other beautiful lights.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. – Martin Luther King Jr. (more Martin Luther King Jr Quotes)

Photo Credit: The image is Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. It’s available as an art print on Allposters.com