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There are a lot of things being torn down these days and it’s hard not to feel as if the sky is falling.
Who doesn’t get the urge to run away?
To wit:
Marsha has taken to standing guard over our relationship to these events, and with her, running away is — never an option.
She never fails to respond with moral clarity, shedding light on even the darkest of events.
She’s become
- a thoughtful activist,
- a tireless post card writer
- a clever sign maker
Most of all, her indomitable spirit lifts me out my chair and onto the playing field of life, forever reminding me to summon my inner Winston Churchill.
And so it must be.
For we are, in fact, engaged in a great moral struggle whose outcome is very much not decided.
It feels like we’re teetering.
So let’s bolster ourselves by looking back to a moment when a leader acted with such moral clarity the world was brought back from the brink of disaster.
That moment was June 18, 1940.
The day Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the British Parliament on the state of the Second World War.
France had just surrendered and Britain was bracing for a German invasion.
On that day the Allies were back on their heels, at risk of losing the war, and only Britain stood in the way of total German domination of Europe.
And yet —
- 338,000 British troops had been left stranded at Dunkirk.
- Britain was desperately low on armaments.
- Only the English Channel stood in the way of a land invasion.
The question before the nation: would she fight or would she surrender?
The chamber was packed.
The whole country was aware of the gravity of the moment and filled with dread.
As Churchill rose to speak, the atmosphere was charged with electricity.
The nation knew Churchill’s speech would set the direction for future engagements. The fate of the Allied war effort would turn on what he said.
And TURN it did.
Churchill’s words were electrifying, his moral clarity was sharp, and his tone was determined.
His speech was one for the ages.
Britain would fight!
He framed the conflict as a moral struggle between good and evil and rallied the public with a sense of individual purpose and collective resolve.
His audience drew strength from his speech and its confident tone.
Churchill roused the nation and rallied the world to Britain’s defense.
The New York Times praised Churchill’s leadership, describing him as “the voice of defiance, and the spirit of resistance.”
The speech also had a critical secondary effect of galvanizing American support for the war effort. Within days, Roosevelt transferred 50 American destroyers to the Royal Navy.
The speech of June 18, 1940 became a defining moment in the Second World War, sending the unmistakable message that Britain would pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship to stand against tyranny and defend its people and way of life.
And so it did.
What commenced after that speech was the Battle of Britain.
Amazingly, the Royal Air Force, in the Autumn of 1940, outnumbered two to one, went on to rout the Luftwaffe and halt the German advance.
There never would be a land invasion of Great Britain.
This heroic story can only make me wonder if there will ever come a June 18,1940 event in our time that will
- galvanize our resolve to do what’s right,
- infuse our backbones with steadfastness,
- strengthen our hearts with steely determination.
That question has not yet been answered.
Churchill’s address and the response of the British people offer us hope.
Reminding us to never sugar-coat hard realities, always to acknowledge real threats and be ready to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good.
We need more people willing to provide
- unequivocal,
- unambiguous,
- unrelenting
moral clarity to help channel our inner Churchill so that we might choose the harder right over the easier wrong. Then might future generations judge this moment as — Our Finest Hour.
Just a thought…
Pat
Relive with me this unforgettable moment on June 18, 1940