This evening, my daughter and I were talking about her pre-JV soccer team -- practice started this week -- and about the as-yet undecided choice of a goalie. As we discussed the challenges of finding the ideal goalie, I reminded her of a comment her coach made last year, that offense is the first line of defense. Thats true in soccer. Its true in the long war with Islam, too, and it goes beyond the direct military conflict. Militant Islam is a tactic, merely one way of pursuing the goal of Islamic supremacy. Political correctness, speech codes, defamation suits, special accommodations -- these are non-violent ways of pursuing the same end. In every case, offense is the first line of defense. If Islam is at war with our western traditions of pluralism and individualism and freedom, then we should celebrate those traditions loudly and proudly. We should be unabashedly western, bold and optimistic, eager to embrace a future in which we stand tall and move the world. Following a recent trip to Chicago, I playfully quoted a bit of Carl Sandburgs poem, Chicago. Reflecting on that, I think that it captures what we in the west should feel about the wonderful rough-and-tumble of our diverse and sometimes chaotic culture. Replace Chicago with the west -- in particular, with America -- and Sandburgs gritty celebration of the great American city is a metaphor for our place in the world. Chicago by Carl Sandburg Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nations Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 02:06:39 +0000
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