The true democracy . . . puts its faith in the people \u2013faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment \u2013faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor and ultimately recognize right.<\/p>\n

\u2013John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking back at these lines from John F. Kennedy\u2019s Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning book of 1955, it\u2019s clear that the dashing senator from Massachusetts intended Profiles in Courage<\/em> to be a blueprint on which he sketched the outlines of his aspirations for what he hoped might be his legacy in public service.\u00a0 Whether Kennedy himself penned the sentences of Profiles in Courage <\/em>or approved words composed by \u00a0speechwriter Theodore Sorenson doesn\u2019t really matter anymore.\u00a0 What does matter is that the book was proof of the outsized ambitions of a young senator who would become a hero from the day of his election as the first Roman Catholic president.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s heroes or, as he might have thought of them, his mentors \u2013John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund Ross, Lucius Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft\u2014 were the historical figures who the young senator hoped to measure himself and others against.<\/p>\n

In his book, which seems more like a relic from a lost and more idealistic era than a playbook for our politically cynical time, Kennedy stared unflinchingly at the pressures of being a political animal. (He was, of course, a member of the pack and one of the fiercest at that.) What he identified were three primary pressures of public life. First was the pressure to be liked.\u00a0 Second was the pressure to simply hold onto the job. \u00a0And third were the divergent interests of an elected official\u2019s constituency and outside interest groups.\u00a0 For those of us who are not elected to public office, similar pressures surely are brought to bear, both at home and in the workplace, by bosses, colleagues, friends, and family.<\/p>\n

Sadly, in our time examples of political and social courage have slowed to a trickle. \u00a0Still, floating around amongst the detritus of today\u2019s ethically challenged social and political climate are a few shining lights.<\/p>\n

Here, then, I offer my own highly subjective list of individuals who deserve to be profiled for their own acts of courage.<\/p>\n

Sister Simone Campbell and the Nuns on the Bus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Touring aboard a bus this summer, the sisters\u00a0 of the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby brought their protest against the radical Ryan budget and its destructive implications for the poor and middle class to economically struggling communities in nine different states. If there is any doubt about the courage it took to engage in such public protest, it should be dispelled by the reaction of the nuns’ superiors.\u00a0 The big guys, sitting pretty in Rome, were definitely not amused. They went so far as to accuse Sister Simone and the other nuns of \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d to the Church, even though American bishops, Catholic social -justice leaders, theologians, and clergy joined together to issue a statement in solidarity with the nuns, labeling Ryan\u2019s proposed budget cuts \u201c morally indefensible\u201d and a betrayal of \u201cCatholic principles of solidarity, just taxation and a commitment to the common good.\u201d \u00a0Undeterred by the Vatican\u2019s edicts to desist, Sister Simone and the other nuns have taken to the airwaves to spread their message.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice John Roberts <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>From the day the Affordable Care Act was signed by President Obama in March 2012, Republicans and Tea Party ideologues declared holy war to defeat it. <\/strong>The troops believed that Justice Roberts was a loyal solider in the crusade.\u00a0 For reasons not entirely clear \u2013perhaps fearing for the historic legitimacy of the Supreme Court\u2014Roberts broke from expectations. Roberts\u2019 deciding vote justly upholding the constitutionality of the act earned him some down and dirty invective from his conservative buddies.\u00a0 One pundit spewed, \u201cHis reputation is forever stained in the eyes of conservatives.\u201d\u00a0 Roberts was called a traitor by many, while the most vile attack of all came from conservative provocateur Ann Coulter, who called Roberts \u201cchickensh*t.\u201d (So much for conservative respect for the institution of the Supreme Court.)<\/p>\n

The unnamed individuals who formed human walls at funeral sites to shield mourners from demonstrations by the Westboro Baptist Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

They came wearing red shirts in Columbia, Missouri, and maroon in College Station, Texas, but their intent was the same.\u00a0 Their names are unknown, but their decency and courage deserve to be recognized. They linked arms to form two inspiring and heroic human walls to shield the families and mourners from the taunts and insults of the misguided parishioners of the Westboro Baptist Church at the funerals of Army Specialist Sterling Wyatt, killed in action at age twenty-one during Operation Enduring Freedom in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, and Lt. Col. Roy Tisdale, killed by a fellow soldier at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u00a0State<\/strong> Senator Steven Saland<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York State Senator Saland\u00a0 (Republican, 41^{st<\/sup> district, my district) voted in favor of New York\u2019s Marriage Equality Act in June 2011.\u00a0 By casting the proud and decisive \u201cyes\u201d vote, Saland resisted the pressures and outright threats to pull endorsements and financial support for his re-election by New York\u2019s establishment Republican Party and the New York Conservative Party. \u00a0Saland listened to, in Kennedy\u2019s words, his \u201cconscientious judgment\u201d but also to the entreaties of family members and his spiritual guide, his rabbi. \u00a0Putting aside threats to his political future, Saland explained that he followed the tenets of his upbringing to support what should be shared American values of fairness and equality.\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n}

Senator Olympia Snowe <\/strong><\/p>\n

Citing the rancor and growing paralysis due to hyper-partisanship in the Senate, Maine\u2019s three-term moderate Republican senator announced that she would not be running for re-election. Her stunning decision followed Snowe\u2019s courageous vote as the only Republican in the Senate to break ranks and vote \u201cno\u201d on the Blunt amendment that would have allowed employers to withhold insurance coverage for any<\/em> health-care service that they believed would violate their \u201creligious beliefs and moral convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Eagle Scouts<\/strong> who returned their medals<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the reaffirmation in July by the Boy Scouts of America of their official policy of excluding openly gay youth and adults from membership and leadership positions, several dozen Eagle Scouts publicly returned their medals in protest. One individual wrote regretfully, \u201cI can no longer maintain any connection to an organization which actively promotes a bigoted and misguided policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

John McCain\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

During the 2008 presidential campaign, television cameras caught McCain in a rare act of committing political courage when he corrected an elderly supporter\u2019s contention that Barack Obama was a practicing Muslim and an Arab.\u00a0 Relieving the supporter of the microphone, McCain showed deep instincts of decency and courage when he unhesitatingly affirmed that Obama was a \u201cdecent family man and citizen\u201d and that he was \u201cnot an Arab.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCain distinguished himself once again when he stood up on the Senate floor recently and defended Huma Abedin, aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, against the spurious accusations by Michele Bachmann and other right-wing mudslingers that Abedin\u2019s family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and that Abedin herself used her position in the State Department to tilt American foreign policy in favor of the Egyptian political party.<\/p>\n

The political peril of McCain\u2019s spontaneous acts of decency can be measured against the calculated silence of two other prominent Republicans\u2014Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney\u2014when they refused to defend Obama against supporters\u2019 false accusations.\u00a0\u00a0 What word should we use to describe Santorum and Romney and others like them who lack the backbone to do and say what is right no matter the consequence? \u00a0That word certainly would not be the one that Kennedy used. Courage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The true democracy . . . puts its faith in the people \u2013faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294,572,172,1477,715,16,1512],"tags":[1678,1677],"yoast_head":"\n