A History of Britain

I have just completed all the episodes of A History of Britain by Simon Schama. And only a few days ago, I completed watching eleven episodes of the series Churchill’s Bodyguard. I have found my personal hero in Churchill. He is the embodiment of my mission: to speak, to lead, to inspire.

They don't make leaders like Winston Churchill anymore. Impetuous, passionate, courageous, and tempestuous, he was conscious of his place in history, and strove hard to fulfill his destiny. He was a force of nature. He was the obstinate war leader of Great Britain when Nazi Germany pounded London ceaselessly with bombs. He won the war with courage, conviction, and, more importantly for a debater like me, the power of his words.

They don't make leaders that speak like Churchill anymore. It was he who said he had nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. It was he who spoke of their time fighting for freedom as an era the British would remember as their finest hour. Churchill's words did not win the war by themselves. But they steeled the British nation and the world to fight back with grim determination in the face of an almost unstoppable Nazi war machine.

Churchill not only made history, he often read and wrote about it. He was as much the chronicler as he was the hero. He even won a Nobel Prize for Literature for his speeches and histories. This relationship to history is one more reason I wish to emulate him. Only destiny can tell whether anything I accomplish will be worth writing about for posterity. But there is nothing stopping me from learning more and writing about our past and how it offers lessons for our future. Our nation is at a crossroads. We are on the cusp of greatness if only we are willing to seize it. Understanding how we came to this point will help point the way to our own finest hour.