Shots on the House

Seldom can one mix poetry, ideology, and current event politics into an anthem of courage and principle but Victor Davis Hanson pulled it off. It’s hard to talk in broad inspiring terms and still hit on real substance, but Hanson’s Pajamas Media piece ‘Our Battered American’ is an artistic piece of political brilliance. You really have to read it straight through to get the full effect but here’s one chunk:

I never missed a mortgage payment; and I never took out a second, third, or fourth mortgage either. I didn’t even know there were such crazy things. So please don’t tell me that the 93% of us that played by our grandfathers’ rules are obligated to come to the rescue of the 7%, who did the exact opposite. At one of your town meetings, just one, instead of pandering to those who defaulted, ask one of us to stand up for paying our debts and then say to the crowd, “Give a hand to Mrs. Battered American. She pays her mortgage, so the rest of us don’t have to!” Try that just once.”

My family is battered, I am bruised. I’m going to college and building myself up a mountain of debt that I know I am going to pay back, and why? Because for me to achieve my dream of success, of standing on my own two feet and contributing something tangible to this world, I have to empower myself. All individuals have to empower themselves. Mr. Hanson is almost too modest in calling this person ‘Our Battered American’, because he’s truly ‘Our Bloodied but Resilient Honorable Hard-Working Respectable American’. We need more of these people.