JaxPolitix

POST 1302

Inspiration

I just read The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines in the current issue of The Atlantic. It is the story of a remarkable man, Kevin Dowdell, as well as his families, both the one at home and the one in his FDNY firehouse. They are both families.

He was assigned to FDNY Rescue 4 and was among the first responders on 9/11. He never came home. They never recovered his body. He was among the 343 firefighters who died that day trying to save others.

I still can’t seem to get clear in my head that some race into burning buildings while almost everyone else is racing out. We all have the same hardwired survival imperative that tells us to run from danger, yet some overcome that natural caution in order to help others. And so it was with Kevin Dowdell that day.

What’s key here are a couple of things he taught his two sons.

“You show up on someone’s worst day and try to make it better.”

“Don’t sit on the sidelines. Make things happen. Do things.”

It’s about being our best selves for the best reasons.

Dowdell’s words feel as though he is calling to us from across the years. He’s wearing his fire gear, holding a Halligan bar and imploring us to take action. to get off the sidelines and make things happen. To do things. He is calling to us to take action because others are counting on us – they need us.

You and I both know what to do. So did Todd Beamer on 9/11.

He led a posse of fellow passengers to storm the flight deck on doomed United 93 on that awful day. They hoped to overpower the terrorists before they could crash the plane into the Capitol Building. They made it crash instead outside Shanksville, PA saving countless lives in DC. Beamer’s voice was captured as he said to his fellow passengers, “Are you ready? Okay. Let’s roll.” And they rolled. They made things happen. They did things.

That’s inspiration, too. Dowdell would have approved.

So, the messages to you and me are,

Don’t sit on the sidelines.

Make things happen.

Do things.

Okay, let’s roll.

.

A Valuable Message

Read Note #5 below before ordering this book.

Of course you feel angry, dismayed, disillusioned, wanting to jump from the insane not-so-merry-go-round, afraid for the future for your children and grandchildren, infuriated by the dishonesty and the anti-constitution, unlawful acts that are ignored by cowards whose job it is to stop the betrayal – all of that and more. What are you and I to do?

Scott Galloway’s new post pokes at that question with an excerpt from Jessica Tarlov’s new book to be released September 15, I Disagree. Perhaps there’s something we can do to stop our uncivil war and become simply fellow citizens, not enemies, with those who have the temerity to see things differently.

I’ll expand that concept to make the point that even as we do verbal battle, we all want much the same things, like healthcare that cares for all of us, prices that don’t send us into bankruptcy and security in a very dangerous world. We want our representatives to be about all of us, not just their big donors. We want to be able to go to a movie or concert and not have fear lurking in the backs of our minds of a mass murderer in the audience with us. Every one of us wants our freedom and we don’t want extremists truncating it.

All of that and more is neither conservative nor liberal, neither red nor blue and there are many more things about which we agree. What if we were to refuse the hatred we are egged on to embrace? What if we stopped demanding perfection from others, that perfection defined by their agreeing with us on everything we know in our self-certainty is right and good? What if we talked with others with respect for them and their their dignity? What if we were to keep our passion and advocate for what we believe in and do so with compassion?

Crazy, right? Hard to do sometimes. Nevertheless .  .  .

Read Tarlov’s excerpt in Galloway’s post. We can be far better than we collectively are now.

Reagan’s Compelling Campaign Question

During the 1980 campaign that ended with Ronald Reagan becoming president, he urged his adoring crowds to ask themselves if they were better off than they were 4 years earlier. That was pretty good campaigning, making Jimmy Carter’s shaky record the issue. Let’s try that question now.

Dear MAGA voters, independents, undecideds, ordinary red state voters and drop outs:

Click me

Are you better off now than you were 2 years ago?

If the answer is no – and the statistics and opinion polls say that we’re not – then it’s time to stand up and speak up, because nothing will get better for us by our doing nothing.

Our Anthem

Here is the We The People Anthem for our next elections, offered to those who do us wrong.

The time for action is NOW!

Keep standing up,

speaking out

and taking action

• Count-down Timer

• To The November 3, 2026

  Mid-Term Election

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JA

Here is the We The People National Anthem of our next elections:

Copyright 2026 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.