Christmas Day 1776.
General George Washington assembled his troops on the Pennsylvania bank of the Delaware, in preparation for a sneak attack on the Hessian mercenaries garrisoned across the icy river in Trenton.
As the men waited for flatboats to arrive, through the roar of the wind their officers read aloud Thomas Paine’s new pamphlet, The Crisis:
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Remember, as Gandhi said, tyrants in the end always fall.
Always.
Opinions are my own.
