The Righteousness of Ahmed el Amhed

“The presence of evil doesn’t break people. From a young age, we learn that there are wolves in our midst. It is the absence of courage that plunges us into crisis. Great courage can help redeem a catastrophe. But abject cowardice not only magnifies our pain; it makes us doubt the strength and virtue of our nation and culture.” David French on courage in the New York Times (Gift Article): The Righteousness of Ahmed el Amhed. This article is mostly about courage as it relates to physical risk. But, as we’ve all learned over the past year, it’s not particularly common for people to show courage even when much less than their life is at stake. We’ve seen “why cowardice is so harmful. It annihilates virtue. One of the most dispiriting aspects of our modern political moment is that it feels as though cowards are everywhere. Institutions yield to bullies. Politicians yield to mobs. People are unwilling to tell even obvious truths if telling the truth will put a target on their back.” This is one reason why, when we see courage, we need to celebrate it.”