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Profiles In Courage

Michael Kroth • Mar 21, 2019

Integritysays, bring it on, I will live or die based on my commitment to virtue.

Early Morning Lamp

Throws Light Into The Slowing Night,

Sight To Sightless Day .

~Michael Kroth

Profiles In Courage, Profound Living, Michael Kroth

Each morning the sun rises. Before that occurs, we see through natural light with night-adjusted eyes. To see clearly, some created light must be brought to bear. Fire, match, bulb. Once that light shines, we can discern where to go and what lies immediately before us.


Today, I am waiting in the dark for someone to bring light to the “leaders” who have the most influence in our country. Specifically, I am waiting to see which Republican Senators will stand by their dead colleague, a military hero and a man of unquestioned integrity, and in so doing bring the light of courage for all to see.


Just that little bit of light for now, to see if there is any left under the bushel.


Losing one’s soul in fear of being “primaried” is an eternal price to pay. Integrity says bring it on, I will live or die based on my commitment to virtue. It says, "I don't mind the threat of being primaried - I'll take my integrity, win or lose, back to my constituents and let them decide."


Integrity says, bring it on, I will live or die based on my commitment to virtue .


Profiles In Courage, written by John F. Kennedy, is a compendium of stories about political courage exhibited by members of the U.S. Senate. Often at great political peril, these brave ones put country before politics and, even more admirably, before their own careers and aspirations. Some were never reelected again.


“In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men– each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient – they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul” (Kennedy, p. 133).


One of my favorite stories is about Edmund Ross, the Republican Senator from Kansas, who voted to acquit Andrew Johnson of impeachment (you should read about his dramatic story, and those of the others). The result “saved the country from dictatorship”, but was his ruination:


“Neither Ross nor any other Republican who voted to acquit Andrew Johnson was reelected to the Senate, not a one of them retaining the support of their party's organization. When he returned to Kansas in 1871, he and his family suffered social ostracism, physical attack, and near poverty.


Who was Edmund G. Ross? Practically nobody. Not a single public law bears his name, not a single history book includes his picture, not a single list of Senate 'greats' mentions his service. His one heroic deed has been all but forgotten. But who might have Edmund G. Ross have been? That is the question - for Ross, a man of an excellent command of words, an excellent background for politics and and an excellent future in the Senate might well have outstripped his colleagues in prestige and power throughout a long Senate career. Instead, he choose to throw it all of this away for one act of conscience" (Kennedy, p. 79).


As Ross was quoted in Profiles in Courage, p. 77. I have gone back to this passage many times.


"I almost literally looked down into my open grave. Friendships, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man were around to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever."


Courage is not a partisan political quality, nor is integrity. Democrats like Sam Houston and Lucius Lamar were also profiled in this Pulitzer Prize winning book. I read Profiles In Courage as a boy, and I still, a half a century later, have my copy. It reminds me of what political leadership is supposed to be.


It is a time once again for valor, not only from elected officials – Republican, Democrat, Independent - but from those who have shone light on the inner recesses of their own souls and…can’t find them anymore.


Resources


Kennedy, J. F. (1964). Profiles in courage: teen age abridged edition. Special memorial foreword by Robert F. Kennedy. New York: Scholastic Book Services.

Profiles In Courage, Profound Living, Michael Kroth
Profiles In Courage, Profound Living, MIchael Kroth

 

“This is how moral

 

Corrosion happens.” Erodes.

 

 ~David Brooks. He’s right .

 

~Michael Kroth

 

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