A Cut Far Above

"I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. I will be heard." - William Lloyd Garrison in the first issue of "The Liberator" (1831)

Over our lifetimes, most of us are not fortunate enough to cross paths with anyone approaching the moral courage of Garrison, the unapologetic abolitionist writer and editor. With deviants like Hitler or Pol Pot getting their one shot at poisoning the world, doesn't it seem appropriate people like Garrison or Raoul Wallenberg would get two lives to help re-calibrate the moral equilibrium of the universe just a little?

Of all my fantasies, perhaps the most persistent is the one where I mature into a person with the iron will and commitment of someone like Garrison; I'll take those qualities even without his prescience. I can never learn too much about heroes like Garrison and I'm astounded how their words alone continue to move me to be more than I am. I hope someday to meet someone of his caliber and stand in the reflected glow of that kind of bravery. Have one of you ever been lucky enough to meet someone this courageous? I would love to hear that story.