There is a difference of opinion in our country about what constitutes "Winning," and what constitutes "Losing" - about what we see as "Strength," and how we view "Weakness."

We seem to have a disagreement in our culture about this. The disagreement tends to come out a lot in our politics: how we view "Liberals," and how we think of "Conservatives."

Certainly, we tend to value "The Fighter" over "The Peacemaker" - this is something our party of Democrats has had to contend with for some time; a characterization that is not really accurate - we have always been called "weak", but it only depends on which value system you use to weigh "Strength" or "Weakness."

For me, war is fear, and fear is weakness.

Is the answer for liberals simply that we act "Tougher?" Is it true to our values that we emulate the very traits we are supposed to stand against?

Not for me. Not my value system. My values are based in what the great orator Martin Luther King Jr. called The Strength To Love.

King reminds us:

Fear is mastered through love. The New Testament affirms, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. This kind of love is not soft, anemic, and sentimental. Such love confronts evil without flinching and shows in our popular parlance an infinite capacity "to take it." Such love overcomes the world even from a rough-hewn cross against the skyline.
(p120 Antidotes for Fear)