Author Herman Wouk captured well how to understand heroism.
"Heroes are not supermen; they are good men who embody -- by the cast of destiny -- the virtue of their whole people in a great hour," observed Wouk.
We have today an American hero in the name of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Anyone with eyes open knows the world today is a very dangerous place.
Johnson, a conservative Republican and a devout Christian, knows that the way for it to become even more dangerous is for the leader of the free world to withdraw from its responsibilities as such.
In the face of threats from some within his own party, in the face of the possibility of a purge like that which happened to his predecessor Kevin McCarthy, Johnson stepped up, rounded up 101 Republican votes in the House and, together with Democrats, passed a $95 billion military aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
As a Christian, Johnson understands that there is no understanding of what freedom is without appreciation that there is good and evil in this world.
Our tendency in our country is to emphasize individual rights when we think about freedom.
But the equal and opposite side of rights is responsibilities. Without responsibility, whether as individuals or as a nation, freedom is gone.
As President Ronald Reagan famously observed, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
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Speaking to reporters after the vote, Johnson noted that this is a "critical time" and that "Xi (China) and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil."
This is not a matter of our nation aspiring to be the world's policeman.
It is matter of knowing that the force of evil cannot be ignored and the price of believing that it can be ignored only grows and becomes increasingly more dangerous.
Is this a matter of focusing abroad at the expense of what is happening at home?
Certainly not.
If a hero, in the words of Herman Wouk, embodies the "virtue" of his or her people, how do we define the virtue of the American people?
It's about the principles of a free nation under God.
We also face great danger at home as we have departed from these principles.
The $95 billion that will go in aid abroad is peanuts compared to what we waste at home in spending programs that do nothing.
The Biden administration has appropriated $80 billion to the IRS to bolster tax collection. But at the same time, Biden has submitted a 2025 budget to Congress increasing federal spending by some $800 billion.
We are now trillions of dollars in the red as result of bankrupt entitlement programs that are basically socialism. These programs are gushing red ink because they are not about, and never have been about, American principles of freedom and personal responsibility.
We, of course, need to assure that those that immigrate to our country come to embrace the principles that make our country great.
But Republicans need to contend with a president and his party who have long abandoned those principles.
Enough Democrats do seem to understand the importance of defending our principles abroad, and here Republicans and Democrats must work together.
So it's not a matter of either/or.
Freedom is about knowing that we have choices, that there is good and evil, and we must fight evil everywhere by choosing the good.
Johnson has done us all a favor through his principles and courage. We have great challenges at home, but we cannot ignore what's happening around us.
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