TERRY MOSHER
(LEFT TO RIGHT) JANE HARTLEY, SPENCER STONE, ANTHONY SADLER, ALEK SKARLATOS
Let’s go.
Those words used by the Americans who subdued the attacker on that French train traveling through Belgium sends chills up and down my arms. It’s a two-word statement that needs no explaining.
I would imagine those words have been used by countless man in countless armed combat in vast and different parts of the world by our American soldiers, who faced with life-and-death situations just commanded something deep in their souls and said the heck with it – let’s go.
Vince Lombardi, I’m certain, used those two words to encourage his players at Green Bay. I think even John Belushi used those words or words similar (let’s do it) in one of the funnier lines in the move Animal House.
I know when I played midget football back in New York I used the words to exhort my teammates to get their act together and block (I was getting killed from my quarterback position) the defense.
From my previous little experience (mainly on the football field) I know those words demand extraordinary courage. They come with split second reaction to something unexpected and are done without thinking of personal safety. For the Americans on that train there was no thought for their own safety. They were acting as we all hope we would when faced with extreme and life-threatening danger. We just suck it up and say, “Let’s Go”
I believe we are in a crisis stage in our history in this country. I have never seen it so divisive. The money-men (thanks to Citizen United) are the new Wizards of Oz – they are the power behind the money curtain who are pulling the strings on the presidential candidates from both sides of the aisle and as such have the wealth to buy and steal our government, and in essence our way of life.
The reason why Donald Trump is so popular in the early polling among Republicans is because he is essentially saying, “the heck with it, let’s go.” His Republican competitors better break out of their tired talking points, join in and say, “Let’s Go” or they will be left far behind.
This is no time for the weak-kneed to call time out and regroup. They just have to wing it and get going.
In real life and in the movie, Notre Dame’s football team responded to the words of George Gipp, who asked coach Knute Rockne to “win one for the Gipper.” Gipp was just asking his teammates “Let’s Go.”
Ronald Reagan, who played Gipp in the movie, used that slogan to win the office of president. Media members referred to Reagan as “the Gipper.”
There were moments in my athletic career that I would get knocked around on the football field or get hounded on the basketball court or face a critical at-bat in a tight baseball game and I would say to myself, “Let’s go.” That was my clue to kick myself in the butt and forget the punishment I was taking and the defeat that was staring me in the face and throw everything away and just go for it.
That is what those guys did on the train. Facing an uncertain fate, facing a dangerously armed man without any offensive weapon except their brave thoughts, they reacted and just said, “Let’s Go.”
That was enough to prevent a certain tragedy on a train far from their homes. At that moment they didn’t question themselves. They didn’t’ say, “Why me?” They didn’t duck for cover. They went for it.
I have often thought what would do if terrorist says, attempt to hijack a ferry and kill those aboard (a not unlikely thought considering the state of the world today) and I always am the hero who kills them and saves our little world. But in reality, I don’t know what I would do.
Would I hunker down in the trunk of my car so as not to be found?
Or would I say to myself, “Let’s Go.”
What would you do?
Anyway, I’m proud of my fellow Americans that they reacted as they did. They had no second thoughts. They just said, “Let’s go.”
Right now, I have to go.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are love.