Let’s Make America Strong – Erik Kondo

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Are you interested in making America strong? Here are my thoughts on how you can help do it.

Making a strong America requires having more strong Americans.
What does it mean to be a strong American? It means to be a strong person.
What does it mean to be a strong person?

Being a strong person has nothing to do with your political affiliation, race, religion, class, or gender. It is not about how tough you think you are. It is not about how physically strong you are. It has everything to do with how you live your life.

A strong person is not a fearful person. That means he or she does not live a life dominated by fear of:

People with different beliefs
People with different political views
People of different races
People of different religions
People with different sexual orientations
People of different genders or gender identities
People of different physicality
Terrorism
Mass shootings
Crime
Harassment
Diversity
Risk
Bigots
Racists
Misogynists
Ableists

Strong people are able to:

Read something they disagree with.
Listen to someone they disagree with.
Engage in meaningful discussions.
Change their opinion based on new information.
Admit being wrong
Praise someone they don’t like.
Praise the actions of someone they don’t like.
Accept that risk is part of life
Stand up for themselves.
Stand up for their principles.
Stand up for others.
Defend themselves
Defend people they disagree with.
Defend people they don’t like.
Encourage diversity

Weak people on the other hand do the reverse of the above.

Strong people stick to their principles regardless of their fears. Weak people disregard their principles because of their fears.

Weak people also feel the need to point out the weaknesses of other people in order to make themselves feel strong. Weak people engage in name calling. They blame and they shame. They thrive on having contempt for others. They seek to surround themselves with other weak people who behave in the same manner. Weak people hold the Other Side responsible for their bad behavior, but don’t feel accountable for their own equally abhorrent behavior.

Neither the political Right nor the Left (or any race, religion, gender, class, or group) has a monopoly on strong people. In fact, both these parties seem to be awash with weak people.

That means the Right has plenty of examples of weak people on the Left. And the Left and many examples of people of weak people on the Right.

The more people from each side focuses primarily on the weakness of the other side, the more they both choose weakness over strength.
It takes a strong person to hold his or her own side to the same standard as he or she holds the Other Side. A weak person is too afraid to do that.

Being a strong person is a life long process. Having been strong in the past doesn’t mean that you are being strong in the present and that you will also be strong in the future. The same goes for weakness.

Making America strong requires making more Americans strong. And that starts with you, me, and everyone else increasing our actions of strength and reducing our actions of weakness.

Or we will eventually degenerate into a weak nation filled with fear, frustration, and finger pointing.

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