‘These are the time that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country but that he stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain, too cheap, we esteem too lightly: — ‘Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.  Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right but to bind us in all cases whatsoever, and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then there is not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.” – Thomas Paine, the American Crisis,  December 1776.

So it’s time now.

Our broken President and his followers are raining a firestorm of hate and fear and lies out into a troubled and vulnerable country, and good and peaceful people are frightened.

The more hatred he spews, the louder they cheer. We all knew it would get worse. It’s worse. So how do we handle it? There are only two boxes to check: Summer Soldier Or Patriot.

This is the testing time. And it will get worse still.

We are not a warrior nation after all, but we have a warrior President.

I see it this way. The Summer Soldier will whine and tremble and rush online all day to tweet. The Patriot will find meaningful work to do and bring some light to the darkness.

We get to be our own leaders, each one of us who are game.

Our President has chosen not to lift us up, but to tear us apart, frighten us, and divide us in the ugliest of ways.

Trump has inspired me to remember how much I love my country or at least the idea of it. Like most of us, our nation is flawed and imperfect. All we can do is try to make it better.

He tore it to pieces, but he will also save it.

When I get discouraged, I always go and read Thomas Paine. He offers a lot of ideas and encouragement that can be useful to people now. His words were beautiful then; they are beautiful now.

In December of 1776, George Washington and his troops had suffered humiliating defeats and lost New York City to British troops.

Between September and December, 11,000 American troops gave up the fight and returned to their families.

Washington was desperate; the rest of the Army was near rebellion, had no winter clothes or shoes, and had not been paid. The American Revolution was hanging by a thread.

Paine, an eloquent and annoying corset-maker from England, once again (he also wrote Common Sense, America’s first best-seller), rose to the challenge of warfare that used words, not bullets, as a powerful weapon.

He practiced literary warfare.

Washington read “American Crisis” to his troops, and Paine’s rousing prose worked.

The beleaguered troops under  Washington’s command rallied and crossed the Delaware River to defeat mercenary soldiers in Trenton and then again at the Battle Of Princeton.

The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

This is not the worst time in American history. New estimates of Civil War casualties from census documents helped historians re-calculate the death toll and increased it by more than 20 percent – to 750,000 dead.

This, in a country of 31,443,321 people, less than a tenth of the country’s current population.

One out of 10 white males in America died in that war. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war fighting for the North – 30,000 of infection or disease.

Paine’s rallying cry is just as relevant now as it was in 1776.

People are fearful for their country. Almost every single elemental value we hold seems to be on the line and under siege.  Our civic life is poisoned by lies and hatred and greed.

The ghost of 2016 haunts people and makes them weak. The ghosts of the pandemic will haunt us now. How many are dying for no reason at all?

I am no Thomas Paine. I can’t tell other people what to do or rally millions of fearful, weary, and concerned people with my words.

But I take Paine’s message to heart.

This is a time to be better than the people who would tear us down. That is easy to say, hard to do. But that’s what it means to have our souls tried and tested.

This is a time to be calm. This is a time to be strong. This is a time to have faith and keep hope alive and nearby. This isn’t the first time the country has been asked to reaffirm itself, nor will it be the last.

Mr. Trump has sparked a great awakening, in myself and countless others. It will not be for naught, you can take that to the bank.

Like Paine, freedom is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to one ideology or the other. My country is my world, and my faith is to do good and live my life and work for a kinder nation.

The very idea gives me strength.

I felt the call to write about this time a month or so ago. Paine was my inspiration.

Every day since then, someone has threatened my life or my dogs or my farm.

Every single day, a fellow American citizen has written me to say my writing should not be allowed on Facebook or any other public forum, that I had no right or business presuming to write on my blog, at my own expense, on my own time.

One woman accused me of dividing the country with my columns, what a promotion that was. I can’t even get the donkeys to come when I call them.

I’ve made it a point to respond to almost every one of these challenges directly. I was surprised and sad to have to remind people that in America, we all have the right to express whatever opinions we want to express, whether people agreed or not.

I always took that for granted, but I see that many people don’t.

But oddly, every message I get like that lifts up.

Whenever someone threatens me, or tells me what I can or can’t right, I just resolve to listen and move along. I can’t survive without my freedom. A lot of people risked their lives to give it to me, I won’t let them down or waste their blood and treasure.

I don’t believe I changed a single mind in those exchanges, but I felt good for trying. My life won’t be drowned in argument of fear.

In her new book Too Much And Never Enough, Donald Trump’s niece, warned us that the President is not going to get better and that he is “without question going to get worse.”

Her prophecy has almost immediately – and eerily –  come true.

President Trump has accused Joe Biden of plagiarism. He warned that a Biden presidency would lead to a surge of crime in the streets.

He said Biden was a dangerous socialist, and that he would eliminate the suburbs – and windows (yes windows). He’s mocked Biden as senile, accused him of being corrupt, a tool of China.

Desperate to distract voters from his now tragic bungling of the federal response to the coronavirus, his last best shot is going low and dirty in the hopes of scaring people into voting for him.

What a cold mandate that would be.

Some people seek to find their better angels, some their worst.

It’s up to each one of us in the end, it’s not an argument on Facebook.

So what does not being a summer solder mean now?

It means doing something beyond fretting and bringing other people down.  It’s personal, it’s not for me to tell other people what to do. If my granddaughter ever asks what her grandfather did during the summer of 2020, I won’t want Emma to say “he wrote messages on social media.”

People will have to make up their own minds, as I  have, about how I can work peacefully for a kinder and more human America. It feels like another revolution, it’s past due.

This is so much bigger than any nasty e-mail.

I don’t want to be a summer soldier. The President is now veering towards tyranny. The American Revolution was fought in part to keep the British from sending soldiers into cities and states where they were not wanted.

Donald Trump has sent federal troops into Washington, D.C., Seattle, and other cities where they have brutalized innocent people. They were not requested or wanted, ostensibly to protect federal property and buildings

They have made things worse, not better.

He admits to creating his own federal strike force to protect our “values.”

To me, this is the most alarming and troubling of his many overreaches and arrogant reach for power. He has my attention. He doesn’t need a personal militia.

I believe Americans like me – and the people who write to me to tell me I have no right to speak my mind because they disagree with me – have gotten lazy and dumb about freedom.

I took freedom for granted. I’m awake now.

Mr. Trump has given me the great gift of understanding how fragile and precious freedom is, even as people would take it away from me without a blink.

Those of us who have never had to fight for freedom before have forgotten that tyranny starts small and grows large, as when stranges in camouflage drive unmarked vans throughout cities and snatch people they suspect of wrongdoing off the streets without a warrant or any kind of due process.

Oh, well, they say, our protesters are just committing another kind of terrorism. Freedom has come at no cost to most of us, but we do have this consolation: the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

It would be strange indeed if so celestial a gift as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

My mission for the next 100 days: Be Calm. Be Strong. Be Loving. Be Steady.

Thomas Paine said even the expression of tyranny is impious. Lots of dangerous men have chosen tyranny over compassion. This won’t stand here in my country.

Such unlimited power can only belong to God.