A call to arms . . . Where are the words?

These really are the times that try men’s souls. When Tom Paine wrote the immortal words that rallied the dispirited troops of our nascent country. His goal was to do just that: To bring the farmers and hunters and merchants of the new country a much-needed glimmer of hope in to face of an overwhelming British military machine.

Well, we all know what happened, don’t we?

The rag-tag Continental Army whipped the lobster-backed redcoats, and the greatest country on earth was on its way toward being born.

Where are the Tom Paines today? Where is the soaring rhetoric, the bold ideas, the improbable ideas that pulled the United States—kicking and screaming—to greatness?

We doing a lot of whining; we find ourselves looking for somebody to blame; we see the darkness and the abyss long before we realize that there is light all around us. This is the light that sustains; that allows us to grow and to prosper.

These are, indeed, the times that try men’s souls. Let us hope that we still possess souls to try.