Lesson from Capturing Bin Laden – We Can And Do Persevere!

I’ve had this plaque hanging in my office for many years now with the title, Perseverance, and it uses the life of Abraham Lincoln as a model.  It’s amazing how many failures and obstacles he had to overcome in his personal and professional life.  I get depressed for him just reading the examples they provide on the plaque itself and there were many more not even mentioned.  Most people would have given up or lowered their expectations.  He kept pushing forward and believing in himself and the higher purpose of his calling and talents.  He was willing to risk war and its devastating consequences (and setbacks) to do what he felt would be the right thing for this country.  We should all be eternally gratefully for his perseverance.

Today we got the news that Osama Bin laden has been killed and is no longer a personal threat to the world.  Justice has been served and hopefully our leaders will keep forging ahead and doing what is right to protect our country and its allies from senseless violence and terrorism.   I’m sure it has been and will continue to be a difficult and frustrating job for those responsible for our homeland security.  It’s been a long time since 9/11.

I have no doubt that President George W. Bush wanted to achieve this outcome and worked very hard towards it.  He could have given up many times but did not.  President Obama was handed this responsibility and had to exercise similar patience and resolve in many different ways.  Like his predecessor he came under intense pressure and scrutiny from others for not being initially successful.   Fortunately for all of us, neither leader, nor their staffs, or most importantly the intelligence professionals and brave soldiers on the ground gave up; they persevered and got the job done.

Being President of the United States of America must be a very heady job.  However, despite the trappings of position, power and influence, it must also be a very lonely role as well.  As should be the case in a free country everyone has the right to criticize your every move with limited or sometimes no real understanding of the facts at hand.  There are countless media blowhards with minimal leadership experience who fancy themselves as experts on what you should or should not be doing and they get paid handsomely to stir up controversies.  The physical and emotional pressures of the job are obviously draining; just look at the before and after pictures of every modern president.  We should all be thankful they choose to do the hard work and risk many things including their own personal wellbeing to assume the mantle of responsibility.

I hope that today we can all just be appreciative citizens. It would be nice if we could briefly put aside our differing individual philosophies and opinions to celebrate the efforts and perseverance of many of our fellow citizens including some who literally risked their own lives to bring Bin Laden to justice.  Our country is not without its flaws nor are our leaders.  We do make mistakes and sometimes struggle with living up to our own democratic principles and values.  Dialogue around how we are doing in this regard should be an on-going and vigorous debate.   However, this mindset should also be balanced against the historical facts of how we can rally together, make significant sacrifices, persevere and accomplish great things as individuals and a country when necessary. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” A family or business that sticks together even when it is hard, listens to each other, trusts and leans one another, does its best to stick to its common principles and values, and perseveres especially in times of trial and tribulation can “…weather any storm and meet any challenge…”

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