People with values who stand by them are people with courage

THE OLYMPIAN | • Published May 20, 2009

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One of our five kids is a “Star Wars” fanatic. Given my husband’s and my limited athletic prowess, it was bound to happen. Plus, as a child of the ’70s, I saw the original seven times in theaters and wore my hair in Leia-rolls.

“May the Force be with you” was as ingrained as Fonzie’s thumbs-up, “Aaaay.”

My son’s Star Wars Insider magazine arrived last August with someone else’s issue stuck to our copy. Our son was away on a trip so I took it upon myself to deliver the issue to the other Olympia “Star Wars” enthusiast.

I girded up some shoulder gear for stature, and donned full-scale Darth Vader garb, complete with voice technology of Vader’s mechanical breathing and James Earl Jones sound bites.

The magazine’s owner looked surprised (maybe even fearful) as I handed him the issue and pressed my costume button that played, “You don’t know the POWER of the Dark Side. Don’t make me DESTROY you.”

Afterward, my husband and I drove through downtown Olympia in our silver Expedition as I shook a Vader fist at passers-by and startled adjacent drivers at stoplights with mechanical breathing and a big, black, Darth helmet glaring down at them.

We passed the Fourth Avenue Iraq War protests, and I thought, “Why not get out and stand with the Women in Black?”

That could make a good YouTube clip.

What stopped me?

Not solidarity to their cause. I was relieved when Saddam’s regime fell, and I supported the troop surge. Even if I don’t agree with what the Women in Black stand for (or stand against), I am forced to respect their devotion, and in turn, to respect their cause.

Similarly, I can’t slam my door on proselytizing Jehovah’s Witnesses or Sierra Club sponsor-seekers. Peaceful devotion to a cause commands respect.

In a society of relativism, or situational ethics, where many believe definitions of what is right and wrong depend on point-of-view, values get fuzzy. It requires courage to take a stand, to proclaim a belief, and then audacity to face the almost guaranteed barrage of criticism from those with opposing views. People with values are people with courage.

Values mesh to form morality, the code of ethics that binds groups of people to form functional, peaceful, and productive societies. When individuals defy that code of ethics, they disrupt peace. When communities defy it, they disrupt society.

Even more devastating, widespread complacence undermines a society’s stability. The work of 10 child pornographers is promoted by a hundred citizens who don’t care.

Child porn seems obvious, but legislation and politics demand that we citizens consider legalization of marijuana, censorship of public radio, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, nationalization of banks and industry, smoking bans, gun control, stem-cell research, gay marriage, abortion, socialized medicine and legalized prostitution.

Do we each know our personal values for these issues, and are we courageous enough to state and defend our values, even in public? If not, we can learn from Olympia’s Women in Black.

Martin Luther King Jr. said: “If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values — that all reality hinges on moral foundations, and that all reality has spiritual control.”

Jill Wellock, a local freelance writer, serves on The Olympian’s Board of Contributors and can be reached at mjwellock@aol.com.