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Frank Cotolo
May 10, 2012 |
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Every once in a while, regardless of how we feel, our guts tell us to take a stand on something.
This gut feeling is deep and sometimes mistaken for indigestion but when it doesn't go away after a
full bottle of Pepto Bismol we understand it entirely.
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Once we recognize the "calling", we are forced to look around at our world and wonder just what is
causing it. If you are like me you first look for the simplest and least demanding issue for which
to take a stand. After all, if it is not something really big it will not take up much of my time
and effort, no less my devotion to Suduko.
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Small issues can also be handled without travel, which can get expensive (have you seen the price of
Amtrak tickets lately?). As well, standing for something small won't get you into trouble with
anyone you are dating because usually if he or she hears about your stand on something small then he
or she will probably just sigh and continue paying attention to learning another language.
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I didn't always look for small issues first but I was taught quickly that large issues, vis-a-vis
important issues, sucked the living breath out of your day. That left less time for making a living,
which is an unfortunate necessity for blokes like me who do not get huge royalty checks for essays
such as this one. To stand for something that has universal meaning and essence is a difficult task.
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If you look at Gandhi and how he took on a huge issue you see first of all that you must change your
appearance, drastically. He shaved his head and exchanged his entire wardrobe for some white sheets.
It was a shameful waste of the wonderful ties he had been gifted by his wife for his birthdays. As
for shaving off all of his hair, it was the ultimate sacrifice of his vanity; that alone makes
taking a stand for something big a pain in the carcass.
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Davey Crockett gave his life for a movement to free a territory where he was not even born. He left
his wife and kids to go to the Alamo and defend Texas from Mexicans (a practice still done today by
the current government of the State of Texas). What was Davey thinking? Certainly if his wife
looked anything like the woman playing his wife in the Walt Disney movie of his life, he would have
had to be insane to go all those miles to shoot Mexicans instead of sharing his bed with her.
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The gut feeling to stand for something is sometimes also known as guilt. It is a sin in our society
to be complacent and passive, unless you are the kind of person who actually listens to what Orrin
Hatch says.
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