Posted on Friday, April 18, 2025
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by AMAC, Robert B. Charles
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1 Comments
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In life, we get opportunities to step up – or to step away. We get them at home, in town, in a state, occasionally for our country. How we respond makes all the difference. It does and always will.
That is what Robert Frost meant, in part, when we wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
The choices we make at life’s intersections take us in different directions, often with no doubling back. Courage and responsibility, risk and acceptance of it, choosing hard over easy leads one way, while ducking the tough stuff and indecisiveness go the other.
That is why Vaclav Havel, eventual president of Czechoslovakia, wrote his provocative poetry, fought Soviets with all he had, encouraging his countrymen to put freedom above comfort.
That is why Lech Walesa in Poland did the same, jailed for his commitment to freedom, yet over time led the Solidarity movement to free that Catholic nation from Soviet atheism.
Of course, stepping up can happen in smaller ways, and does every day. We can step up at home, volunteer in ways that make others’ lives a bit easier, maybe just give time. We do it in our towns, from volunteer firefighters to leading civic groups, speaking to kids, and checking in on the sick.
“Many hands make light the load,” so an old scout leader taught me, as we all pitched in to put chairs away after a big meeting. And here is a truism: When you step up, others follow. When we choose not to, others follow then, too.
Stepping up, of course, has many meanings. It can mean doing the task no one wants to, knowing someone has to. It can mean speaking your mind when a friend, school board or group needs that. It can mean listening others vent their spleen, knowing their assumptions need fixing.
Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Both are stepping up, not stepping away.
Finally, stepping up can mean big risks, accepting those risks for a higher purposes. That is what parents do, what those in the military, law enforcement, operating rooms, and classrooms do. They step up because progress, growth, making things happen – on a battlefield, in the community, in a hospital or school, and in politics requires that good people step up.
We all have good examples around us, and the unspoken fact is that people are watching, kids, and others who want to be encouraged to step up, not sure if they can. The best way to encourage others, come what may, is to step up and into the fray, “seize the day.”
A final secret, not often heard, is true: We grow most when we step up. We all get the chance – every day – to change our world, in some little way. We only need to see them, embrace them. Seize the Moment! Carpe diem!
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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