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.
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises; and oft it hits where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.
The concept of progress must be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things are 'status quo' is the catastrophe
A consistent anarchist must oppose private ownership of the means of production, and the wage-slavery which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer.
I sometimes think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
How life is strange and changeful, and the crystal is in the steel at the point of fracture, and the toad bears a jewel in its forehead, and the meaning of moments passes like the breeze that scarcely ruffles the leaf of the willow.
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.
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