In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
Stanley A. McchrystalRead
How Americans restore trust may be an existential question for their country, then, but it's ultimately a practical one: What U.S. society needs to answer it in the coming years aren't lamentations but practical measures, especially among the emerging generations that will define America's future.
Interpretation
Restoring trust is crucial for America’s future and requires practical actions from the younger generations.
This quote emphasizes the importance of trust in American society, framing it as an existential question for the nation. It suggests that, rather than merely expressing sorrow over the loss of trust, the focus should shift to concrete actions and solutions, particularly driven by the younger generations, who will shape the future of the country.
In practice
In a speech discussing the importance of civic engagement among young people.
In my life as a soldier and citizen, I have seen time and time again that inaction has dire consequences.
I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades.
I was raised with traditional stories of leadership: Robert E. Lee, John Buford at Gettysburg. And I also was raised with personal examples of leadership. This was my father in Vietnam. And I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal, or abandon their comrades.
When you go through some controversy and you see your face on the news in a negative way for 48 hours... you doubt yourself. And your friends make the difference. They become a safety net that come in and say, 'That's not the case.' And the relationships that you've built... come to the fore.
The basic DNA we've got to implant in leaders now is adaptability: not to get wedded to the solution to a particular problem, because not only the problem but the solution changes day to day. Creating people who are hardwired for that is going to be our challenge for the future.
If every soldier is authorized to make one mistake, then we lose the war.
Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty.
It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.
When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world.
For 12 long years I lived within the narrow-minded confines of the 'straightjacket world' created by my strong belief that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger direct from God Himself, and my faith in what I now see to be a pseudo-religious philosophy that he preaches.... I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did.
To argue about justice is unavoidably to argue about virtues, about substantive moral and even spiritual questions.
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