TRIAL: A quest for courage

As a soldier in Vietnam, I was often stunned at the courage I witnessed and often from those who I least expected. I have pondered why something so prevalent in MORTAL conflict abounds while seemingly absent in MORAL conflict. Perhaps it is that in life and death situations, we have little time to weigh the consequences while in the latter, rationalization and equivocation strokes the lesser angels of our consciousness.

I did not watch snippets of the news, I watched President Trump incite the crowd in “real time.” If his actions are not sedition, then what is? Make any constitutional argument you want, what he did was WRONG! To excuse this would make us party to the crime.

“If Americans want our constitutional system to withstand the next authoritarian attack, we should look for men and women like Senators Romney, Benton and Byrd, who worry more about how they will be judged by history than by their peers.” — Salt Lake Tribune. I would add Liz Cheney to that list. Perhaps their careers are over, but their morality is intact. Our country hungers for that courage to become the norm.

STEPHAN SPEER

Coeur d’Alene