My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

Inside everyone’s mind there is an honored hall. Perhaps it has a marble floor with a fountain under a sky lit archway. Perhaps it’s a great wooden hall where the hearth fires never extinguish. The statues of your heroes stand proudly and captured words of wisdom adorn the walls. How many of us have developed as cynics into adulthood and laid hammer upon the pillars and images of that hall in rage when those heroes begin to seem too human? How many great men and women of the past do you now have in your hall that were spared the severe instant judgment without parole or pardon of today’s media?

The brotherhood of our countrymen truly consists of all our glory and imperfections, so it is hard for me to recognize a man who supposedly has never made a mistake as my brother. I’ve run into too many good people who were concerned for their country and otherwise capable of being a great leader, but were terrified of how the media could destroy them for not being perfect. An individual that might find them to be a splendid choice for an elected leader may feel obligated to scream at them to reconsider, but it’s likely hopeless. We know full well the media circus we now exist in.

Do we wish for our country to be run by idyllic paladins of virtue who reflect not one of us? I would prefer the leader who has character through his or her experiences, be they right or wrong turns in life, and who has enriched and steeled their conviction and resolve through these trials. I prefer leaders that have seen the world in the same eyes that I do tackling daily frustrations and somehow keeping the ship afloat. Men and women who have grown their principles through experience are what we all should seek to elect to higher office.

They say good men don’t run for politics but that contradicts the squeaky clean image we’re forced to swallow about many of our present leaders. If good men don’t run for politics, then this would suggest that good men don’t normally have clean records. We would have a brighter future for our country if we made room for those that are great leaders regardless of small failings, especially in the past. Without question the Davy Crocketts and Theodore Roosevelts from our nation’s history would not survive long in today’s political blood bath of strict intolerance. This complete lack of public forgiveness is a loss for our nation because the greatest leaders are tested by fire. A leader that I can follow has scar tissue on his heart and sees power as a burden like an ox knows the plow as opposed to someone who sees a position of power as a feather to put in his hat. It was Teddy Roosevelt that demanded that other nationalities judge our people by our President and I personally do not believe he meant that as a constant negative condemnation.

Our country is merely an idea that rests in the minds of all Americans and we elect leaders to uphold our founding principles in what ever may pass. Stephen Decatur once stated the following, “Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!” I relate that quote in how I feel about leaders. I’m proud of our nation’s many heroes who were as diverse as the clouds that pass over us. I do not expect them to always pick the right path, but to always be looking for it for all of us. I expect them to share the same faith in my country as I do.

We can imagine the media-soaked cynic in his darkened great hall, with weeds and rubble at the feet of his last and greatest hero. Perhaps that cynic may under great pain grant his hero forgiveness for a flawed past once he can forgive himself for the same.