Dasha

Mrs. Byrd

American Literature, p. 6

3.10.2001ааааааа

Courageous аThrough аAges

ааааааааааа All countries all over the world have been having adversities from time to time.а What adversities are? Wars, struggles, diseases, poor harvests, starvation, rebellions.а All the troubles of humankind are handmade.а And they affect humans.а So, obviously, to solve the problems we don't have to wait until something happens.а We being to blame in what we caused have to act, to do something to save each other instead of brooding and being sorry.

ааааааааааа It might look like empty senseless words but it is easy to prove them.а Just to look back, into our past, into history.а Of course, a lot of things have changed: clothes, fashion, architecture, level of civilization and convenience.а E.g., outer shape.а Maybe I won't say anything new if I say that people are still the same.а And also the ways they solve their problems.аа Of course, to recognize what is the pure seed of the eternal truth and what is the multicolored husk of the time, to pick the truth out and to use it in present situation one has to be very educated in his main occupation.а And only then, when one knows exactly what to do, he can be courageous.а Because blind challenge without understanding might make it even worse.

ааааааааааа Back in the past everyone who was reasonably courageous was also very educated.а I mean people we remember and honor.а People like Puritans, for example.а Though very few people nowadays share their outlook but we all appreciate their challenge: to leave for unknown land beyond the ocean and to settle a new city only for what they believed - it should have been scary, shouldnТt it?а But they did it!

ааааааааааа Let's look at the heroes of Great Awakening.а I disagree with Jonathan Edwards' point of view and believes but, I think, he was really brave when he decided to make a journey through towns and villages with the series of sermons.а But to make people think his way he had to know how use persuasive devises:

ааааааааааа O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much as against you, as against many of the damned in Hell. (From "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God")

ааааааааааа Agree with me, if he wouldn't have been that educated he couldn't have created such a bright imagery.а And if he wouldn't have been that brave, he wouldn't have dared to tell things like this to the audience.аааа

ааааааааааа Next in American history was The American Revolution.а Again, bold and clever people played the main roles in it. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams...а One must be provident and ready for sudden circumstances and even harder times to act against such a powerful orb as Great Britain and to say such a dareful things, although they were truthful,а about its King while struggling for Independence:

ааааааааааа A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

ааааааааааа Now jumping ahead to nowadays.а We are in the beginning of the greatest adversity ever happened, the Great War.а Third World War.а Frightful even to pronounce it. And I really hope that it will be an intellectual war of Civilization against the terrorism. Otherwise there will be no winners.а I've heard the rumors that Russian nuclear arms are now possessed by Bin Laden.а And I really hope that those are only rumors.а I hope that our Civilization has the power of courage and wisdom.а It is the question of our existence.а

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