Be careful who you consort with. Be careful of what groups you associate with. Once you accept their ideals and principles, they will leave an indelible mark on your character. If they become less than what you had hoped for, the stain will be on your character forever no matter how hard you work to remove it.
That being said, understand our world is a spectrum of good and evil. The absolutes at either end of the Bell curve are rare. It is a balance, and the worth of a person is a result of how they balance the good they do for others against the pain and suffering they inflict upon others.
And be most wary of those who would use the good within you to their own ends. The ideals of the United States as stated by our forefathers are good and just. Nefarious men will bend those ideals and twist them to their own means, sprinkle on a topping of blind patriotism and send young men to their deaths and our country to ruin and despair. Be your own judge of what is right and wrong. Investigate deeply for truth and fallacy. Understand and preserve the gift of our Constitution. Common men may never have the opportunity to determine their own fates again.
You will be tricked. You will be fooled. It's inevitable. I was. Many times. Chances are I will be fooled again at some point. But watch for it. Recognize it. And when you see it for what it is, continue on your path towards righteousness. It is your determination to strive towards righteousness and justice that defines you.
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley
addendum and point of fact: Invictus was written in rat feces on toilet paper and passed between POWs in the Hanoi Hilton for inspiration. It was also recited by Timothy McVeigh as his last statement prior to execution.
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