"One of my favorite movie scenes is from the film Gettysburg that was released in 1993. Colonel Chamberlain, a Bowdoin College professor of rhetoric turned soldier (and played magnificently by Jeff Daniels), is holding the left flank at Little Round Top. He comes to understand the gravity of the situation from Colonel Vincent, who ends his grim exhortation with the line, “Now we’ll see how professors fight.” I love that line. It’s not that I like fighting—like Colonel Chamberlain, I have more pacifistic tendencies—but I admire that moment of courage when these men led by a liberal college professor stood up and faced what had to be done, ultimately fixing bayonets, charging down the hill, and winning the battle. I sincerely hope our bayonets are metaphorical but that we have the courage to act when we see a need and an opportunity."
So many metaphorical bayonets needed right now.
Dr. Patricia Flowers
photo of the mighty Hudson River in my back yard
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