Editorial by Don Bendell

IT’S TIME TO ROCK THE BOAT!

You cannot lead people by trying to push them with a rope. You need to lasso them with a taut line of leadership and tow them behind you. So many republicans, conservatives, independents, libertarians, and even moderate democrats have been decrying the state of our nation ever since the first day our current President was sworn in.

Many have been running around acting like cruise ship passengers seeing glaciers floating close by and screaming when they have not even struck an iceberg, “The ship is sinking! The ship is sinking!”

They complain and whine about the loss of the American dream, the demonization of American leadership. Balderdash! Or, in SCUBA divers’ terms: That is lower than whale crap, which is on the bottom of the ocean floor. There are ice flows all about us, but we only need to steer our rudders avoiding obstacles, and push forward full speed ahead without fear or trepidation.

Faith and fear both sail into the harbor of our minds on a continuing basis, but only faith should be allowed to drop anchor. It is time for those of us who are true Americans,  men and women of faith and belief in American exceptionalism, to weigh anchor, jettison the unnecessary ballast of fear and hesitancy, right our ship with our moral compass set on a course of greatness again, and look to the distant horizon for our own Port of Great Hope. This is not a time to tread water and simply observe the seizure of our mighty ship, by the pirates of dependence.

Freedom is under attack, but freedom is the sure possession of only those with the courage to defend it, the tenacity to take it back when it is stolen, and to prevent its theft by those with the self-centered lack of principles to recognize its true greatness.

First, we must understand the tactics of these buccaneers of bureaucracy, these slave-traders of innocent minds, and their weapons of verbose rhetoric fired into the crowd of the naïve and the mis-informed.

1.    Salvos of stupidity from the deck guns of techno-nerds, who were bullied and beat-up in middle and high school, but now have secured way too much treasure and the inherent power that comes with it and are abusing it to their own selfish ends.

2.    An unrelenting assault of crying racism, sexism, and misogyny for anything and everything that comes into their narrow, demented minds. Crying racism is the cheap ammunition of the scoundrel and the coward. This nation is not systemically racist. It is the most successful, fairest system of governance in the history of the world. Aye Matey, with one exception: We could sail to the Fountain of Youth if we would only heed the words of the Omnipotent, All-Knowing, Harbormaster, who is Headquartered in Paradise, wanting all of us to eventually dock there. The mighty Captain’s logbook has all our answers.

3.    Innocent deck hands, who lived for years in mommy and daddy’s basement, and then have been stirred into mutiny by elitist so-called educators who live in the make-believe world of academia, and theoretical nonsense, the admirals of higher education and slaves of the NEA.

4.    Let us not forget those leftist political leaders who seem to be land lubbers manning a ship of fools, thinking they will disarm all the crew, so they can enslave us, too. They think they will whip us into submission and peaceful surrender, forgetting what happened at Fort Sumpter and the docks in Boston Harbor. We who are free, black, white, red, brown, and yellow, will never be whipped or put in chains again.

5.    Once the protectors of truth and integrity, the turncoat arsonists called the Mainstream Media who cannot get out of their own way kneeling and worshipping only the cadre on the port side, the left side, of the Mighty Ship. They point their swords of libel and slander at those on the starboard, or right side of the ship, ignoring the fact that those on the port side, are causing the ship to list too far in one direction, the left, and may cause it to sink. Instead of dropping their swords as common sense and conscience would dictate, they instead pick up torches to set the starboard side aflame, not realizing, or maybe not caring that their actions can send all of us into the deep.

6.    The Powerful Slave Traders whose billions in bullion are only outsized by their enormous egos, sense of self-importance, and pure greed. They command the fleet, but should actually be in irons below deck in the brig, or walking the plank, or better yet, maybe walking the plank while in irons.

My fellow patriots, it is time for us to sink or swim. 2022 is a port where we can replace the do-nothing crew if we all start rowing together now.  We cannot have one rowing this way and another rowing that way. Then, we will at least right the ship, and then in 2024, we simply replace Captain Bligh and set him and his followers adrift on a lifeboat into uncharted waters, while we sail toward distant sunlit horizons with red, white, and blue sails, and a new captain who will lead us back beneath the shadow of that great lady, the Statue of Liberty.

Are you on board for this adventure, or do you want to splash around in a panic crying, “Help, we’re drowning! Somebody save us!”

True leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination. It is time to save ourselves. Do you want to sink or swim?

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell, is a 4-time best-selling author with over 3,000,000 copies of his 30 books in print and a Pulitzer prize nomination in 2011, a 100% disabled Green Beret Captain and Vietnam combat veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, Don has a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from Grand Canyon University, and has 6 grown children and 11 grand-children. He and his social psychologist wife and co-author, Dr. Janet Bendell, own the Strongheart Ranch south of Florence, Colorado named for one of his best-selling westerns. They co-authored a motivational book on the myths of toxic masculinity and it is also a memoir, REAL MEN ARE COWBOYS & Women Love Them, which came out in February, 2020, and was a best-seller in its first week of release, and is available in print or e-book at all the popular places such as Amazon, Nook, Barnes and Noble, even Wal-Mart.