A single feather. So simple. Light as the wind.
I’m sure we all have found one in the yard or on a trail or sidewalk. With its colors and geometry, it’s like spotting a ruby or diamond. Kids are instinctively drawn to picking up a feather. It’s made to be discovered and ruffled.
Of course, one thing we do with a feather is let it go and watch it drop. Because nothing in the world floats to the ground like a feather — trying so gracefully to stay aloft as long as possible.
Not only is it beautiful and magical — it’s also powerful. To own a feather from a bald eagle is a crime in our country because of how sacred a symbol it is to us as Americans.
Feathers also contain the power to shame. British soldiers in their empire days would give white feathers to shame a fellow soldier who shirked the duty to fight. British women would hand a white feather to a man who did not enlist during World War I.
By a twist of history, the British white feather and American slang for a coward, “yellow,” combined — and the yellow feather was born. The intent is the same: to shame cowardice.
We find ourselves at a historic crossroads. The world has been turned upside down as blame becomes typical, responsibility becomes a snicker, lies become truth and obedience to bullies becomes the norm. This is the world of the “bullycoward.”
Bullycowards love to kick sand in the faces of those they know are weaker. That’s what a bullycoward lives for: to humiliate, to denigrate, to belittle and to tower above.
A bullycoward thrives on intimidation until they are met face to face. Their strength is in the possibility of the fist they will use to pummel you, as in a schoolyard knockdown. And the only way to stand up to a bully is to stand up. And when you stand up, so will others. That is how to beat a bully who is a ultimately a coward.
We now live in a world led by bullycowards who kick sand in our face and the faces of our friends and allies — and dare us to stand up to them. They lie to us as if they’re pouring water into our mouths to drown us. Their currency is chaos. And the truth they tell is just makeup used to disguise their real intent — to take more and more power because enough is never enough for a bullycoward. The feast has just begun, and they cannot gorge themselves enough.
The only thing that will cow a bullycoward is to stand up to them. Yes, one person can stand alone, much like in a Western gunfight, a powerful symbol of our American history. And much like the lone man standing in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square against the Chinese government. But the real strength lies in numbers. If one stands up, then others will stand up, and soon tens become hundreds, they become thousands, and they in turn become millions. And this how we fight a bullycoward.
So let us begin with the simplest drop of a feather — a yellow feather. Dropped like a delicate atom bomb of resistance against those who will not stand up for what they know is right.
Drop the feathers before these bullycowards like a carpet of cowardice. Call them out. Though you may think that shame has been buried under the weight of untruths and confusion, this symbol will remind them that ultimately all men and women must eventually make amends with the truths of their lives — and lies.
Take these feathers and lay them gently before the feet of those who bend in cowardice. Who lie to themselves, believing these lies are true in the day yet knowing in the dark heart of night that they are not.
Sprinkle these feathers without fear, for they are only mere feathers. The weight of their meaning will carry far and wide, communicating the pain of shame, which is how honest men and women know they must stay honest.
These yellow feathers, so God-given light, will stand fiercely strong against any and all punches by the bullycowards. Because — how do you punch a feather?
Send them, sprinkle them, toss them, place them. Float them from the rooftops, on to the stairwells, around the buildings, across the thresholds. Let the bullycowards know we are standing united against them.
It is time for us to stand up and face them down or face the wrath of a million yellow feathers.
Carew Papritz is the award-winning author of “The Legacy Letters.”
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