Two things I believe Americans can do as we go through the coronavirus challenge are to pray and to fear not.
Our forefathers crossed the Atlantic, traveled sea to sea in covered wagons, lived in sod houses, settled wildernesses, and defeated the scourge of slavery.
America is the greatest nation ever. Against all odds, we defeated the British Empire to gain independence. We survived a bloody Civil War to end slavery. We won two world wars. We defeated the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and won the Cold War.
The Greatest Generation grew up during the Great Depression, fought a world war, defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and came home and built the greatest economy ever.
I witnessed firsthand the moxie of these folks. My stepfather hit the beach at Normandy and fought with the Third Army, commanded by Gen. George Patton, across Germany to Czechoslovakia. When he returned home, he served in the NYPD for 20 years in one of the toughest precincts. He survived war, violence patrolling dangerous New York city streets, cancer, divorce, and loss of a child. He grew up dirt poor, the son of immigrant parents. In the line of duty, his skull was cracked open with a pipe.
Years later, he died from cancerous tumors that repeatedly attacked his skull at the point of the injury. In his second career, following his time as a police officer and detective, I never saw him miss a day of work and he worked into his late ’70s. He was up early, worked all day, came home, and worked in the garden, yard, or on projects in the house. If he was alive today, he would respect the coronavirus, but he would never fear it. He would attack it like any other threat, head on. With his life.
He would have protected my mother from the virus. He had his demons. He was hard, difficult, mean, and tough as woodpecker lips. He would not understand safe spaces, victimhood, or woe is me. He would be 100 percent confident that America will defeat the virus and that our best days are ahead of us.
I agree.
David Dodd, of Kennesaw, retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Army. He commanded a battalion of the first troops deployed to the Middle East following 9/11. He served four deployments in his 27 years with the military. Currently, Dodd directs Point 27, a national faith-based nonprofit based in Atlanta that serves members of the military, veterans and first responders, the chronically ill and athletes.
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