When Was It Lost? The Fading Flame of America’s Fighting Spirit

The safety of a keyboard has replaced the values that once made us great.~Anonymous

There is no single date etched in stone, no year that can be circled in history books, when Americans quietly surrendered its fighting spirit, for justice, for truth, for one another. It was not taken in one blow. It was lost slowly, in fragments, diluted by comfort, distracted by convenience, and dulled by despair.

The question is not if it was lost, but when. And perhaps more urgently: Can it be found again?

Once, We Rose for Each Other

There was a time, many times, when people stood up not only for their own freedom, but for the dignity of others. Women chained themselves to gates for the right to vote. Men bled on picket lines so their children wouldn’t work in factories. Strangers locked arms across bridges, facing dogs and guns, for civil rights.

The American spirit was not perfect. It was messy, flawed, even violent at times. But it was awake. It cared. It fought. After 9/11 we witnessed record numbers of those enlisting in our military. We didn’t know we were deceived. When we found out we were deceived, where was that same fighting spirit that Toby Keith sang, “we’ll put a boot in your ass it’s the American way?”

So When Did We Lose It?

1. When Convenience Became King

We traded conviction for comfort. When survival was no longer a daily fight for many, struggle became optional. And optional struggle is easily shelved.

2. When Technology Gave Us Echo Chambers Instead of Town Squares

Social media promised global connection but often delivered isolation and performative outrage. We shout into digital voids, mistaking it for action.

3. When Compassion Became Politicized

Caring for the poor, protecting refugees, defending the planet, these became “sides” instead of shared human duties. Empathy was labeled radical. Humanity became partisan.

4. When We Were Told to Be Small

Systems, economic, political, corporate, trained us to believe that change is impossible. That we’re just tiny gears. That courage is naïve. That idealism is for poets and fools.

But Not All Is Lost

The flame still flickers. In ordinary people doing extraordinary things, not because they must, but because their conscience compels them.

The spirit is not gone. It is buried, but not dead.

What Must Be Remembered

We did not lose the fight all at once. And we will not reclaim it all at once.

It starts with refusing to look away.

With helping someone who cannot help you back.

With saying no when silence is easier.

With believing, still, that America is worth fighting for.

The world does not need more cynics. It needs stubborn hope, and people brave enough to act on it.

We have terrorist, foreign armies and the worst of the worst from other countries inside of America. Do you know why? Because we look weak. We are openly disputing if families should cut the penises off little boys to be girls. We cannot speak what’s on our minds because some male or female Karen has their ass chapped or you are called names. So what? Grow a pair or let the pair drop that God gave you son! To other countries we look like a nation of pansies and until we find our courage, our will to fight for the rights of others, stop being divided by politics, you may want to get use to being someone’s B****! You can…because we aren’t and won’t!

Question

So when did we lose the American fighting spirit ?

Maybe the better question is: Will we find it again?

Let it be now. Let it begin with us.