Persist and prevail.
That’s our family motto. It’s engraved in wood and hanging on the wall in every living room in our family.
Persist and prevail.
Persist means “don’t quit.” Prevail means “you win.” If you don’t quit, you will win.
That’s our family motto.
That’s our national ethic.
That’s how the people on the deck of the Mayflower survived. That’s how the people in the belly of the slave ships survived. That’s how we conquered a continent and built the freest and most successful country in the history of the world.
We don’t quit.
Americans stand and deliver. We can take the heat. We value strength. We are tough in our soul. And the more you beat us down, the stronger we get.
At least that’s how we used to be. And that’s how we used to be proud of being.
But now we are so accepting of our weakness that we celebrate it. So compassionate of those who struggle that we lionize struggle. We have lost sight of the value of winning, and of not letting our team – or our country – down. We have created a fake nobility for those who falter, seeing the failure to achieve as somehow a higher and better thing than actually achieving.
In weakness we find inspiration.
Which is a reversal of the American way.
And an abandonment of the commitment to excellence at the cost of personal sacrifice that has built strong cultures and nations across the world and throughout history.
The folk lore and national histories of the world are built upon tales of individuals who, facing impossible odds, display courage and capability to accomplish great things – usually for others, and for the glory and good of their people and place. They give medals to and erect statues of those who don’t quit under great pressure, and who put service above self.
It is a national ethic we teach to our littlest kids as they play their first sports: Quitters never win, and winners never quit. And we build upon it with continued responsibility, asking them to do ever more challenging things requiring ever more effort and sacrifice. We put them on teams to understand the need to put something above themselves. We teach them to uphold their end, to not let others down, to be someone who can be counted on.
And we teach them that in their darkest and most difficult moments they must have faith in themselves, and in their God. Americans believe that nothing is impossible, and that defeat only comes through surrender.
And this ethic is useful. It is a strength through life. It helps us all on our most difficult days. And every life has those difficult days.
When there’s not money to buy gas to get to work. When the baby’s sick or the mom is dying. When the job is lost or the house burns down. When the marriage ends or the friend turns traitorous. When the diagnosis is bad or the clouds of depression gather in. When the prison door slams or the national economy crashes.
When disease spreads and battles rage.
When whatever difficulty of whatever nature stands between us and happiness and peace.
On that day, on that most difficult day, is when we must stand strong. That is the moment of all moments when we absolutely must not quit.
That’s what our culture teaches us. That’s what our families teach us. That’s what all human history shouts to its posterity. We stand on the shoulders of giants, men and women of every race and creed who rose to the challenges of their days. Men and women who did not quit, so that we might have life, so that we might have freedom, so that we might have a country.
They faced malaria, they faced Jim Crow, they faced the Depression, they faced Normandy, and they did not quit. And they did not raise us to be quitters.
This is not to condemn those who falter, it is to praise those who don’t.
It is to hold up the example of the ages, and remind us of the ethic of our people. We are conquerors, of ourselves and of our fears.
And if we do not quit, we will win.
But if we do quit, we lose every time.