“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’
“Well, do ya, punk?”
Clint Eastwood.
The very name conjures up an image.
Perhaps it is of Dirty Harry with the line above.
Or it could be the Outlaw Josey Wales: “Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’.”
Or, after this past Super Bowl ad season, it could be a new quote: “It’s half time in America.”
“People are out of work and they’re hurting and they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a come back and we’re all scared because this isn’t a game.”
Eastwood did what Americans do best in the final analysis.
He talked with American simplicity about what we would like to believe if true about us and he talked about what we wish was true, even if it means we have to change to make it so.
“We’ve lost our heart at times,” speaks to the reality of our concerns about a nation that doesn’t seem as bright and shining as we once thought it was.
Those of us who have lived through this, know that we have had to move on, with or without great leadership.
“We all rallied around what was right and acted as one because that is what we do.
“If we can’t find a way, then we make one.”
This speaks to the reality that we know is true in this nation. We have experienced it, even after dark times when it seemed like we could not find a way. We still did, and we still will.
“How do we come together and how do we win?” Eastwood asks the question America has to ask, over and over as we continue to live out this grand experiment that is a free society.
But our worst sin is to convince ourselves that we can’t do this.
“We get right back up again and when we do the world’s going to hear the roar of our engines.
“Yeah, it’s half time America. And our second half’s about to begin.”
Or, in the words of perhaps the greatest single talent this nation ever produced: “From whence shall we expect the approach of danger?
“Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never.
“All the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years.
“No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher.
“As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln
It was true then.
It’s still true now.
If it really is half time in America, it is time for us to be true to the great players from the first half and find a way to carry on.
— Chuck Smith