No matter the opposition. No matter public opinion. No matter the cost. As they were brave, so must you and I be brave. As they pressed on, so must we, in the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

He was sitting alone on a cot. The room was dark and damp. What light there was helped little against his failing eyesight. Short of stature, he was balding, but lean and sinewy. He squinted at the parchment. Oblivious to his sparse, inhospitable surroundings, he focused with a single-minded intensity on his writing.

The malaise of pessimism and angst cuts across party lines. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are all depressed about the present national condition. They may have different reasons, but they are all in the dumps about the United States.

The sun was setting gently across the broad Pacific. In its breathtaking beauty and confident serenity, it was a majestic and powerful sight.

It was, perhaps, this peaceful sunset, together with the relentless violence and destructive contagion of war, that led the great man to take pen in hand on this evening. Just harrowing days earlier, he and his family were crossing turbulent and dangerous waters in a small PT boat, surrounded by the enemy. He had found solace and protection on this island nation.