Tough Guys

Usama Bin Laden (UBL) was in Abbottabad, Pakistan this past weekend, when Seal Team 6 came calling.  The most notorious 21st Century tough guy stood behind his wife, who was shot in her leg. In Texas, this is called “hiding behind your woman’s skirts”.


Several years ago, David Koresh was enjoying life in the Branch Davidian’s compound at Waco, Texas, when ATF agents came calling.  Koresh and his followers machine gunned ATF agents. Three hundred federal agents then surrounded the compound. The tough guy, David Koresh, called his mother and complained that the federal government was being mean to him. This is called “whining”.


At the courthouse, Judges see tough guys, who beat their women.  Typically, these tough guys are ugly to every women in their family, but are very polite to women they meet in public.  They are violent to wives, girl friends, and mothers, but nice to the boss' secretary and strippers. These tough guys call this “machismo”.


After an adult lifetime of hearing belittling criticisms by the women’s movement, I want to talk about tough guys.
I mean, talk about really tough men. There are two ways really tough men can act in the face of heavily armed opponents.


Example 1:  Face the music.  Jesus faced armed men at the Garden of Gethsemane.  He surrendered.  He calmed tensions.  He faced his fate with courage and prayer.  This was one really tough guy.  Three days later, in the early morning Jesus walked out of his tomb between two angels. The Centurian and Roman guards were heavily armed, and had sworn to stop Jesus from leaving.  Too tough by a mile.  The Romans decided it was better to wake up Pontious Pilate, than to come after Jesus and two Angels.


Example 2:  “Come and get me, you dirty rats!”  In 1836, the men at the Alamo at San Antonio faced a large army from Mexico.  That army never took prisoners.  The men could flee or stay and fight impossible odds.  There would be no help. They were on their own. William Travis drew a line in the sand, and the men stepped across the line.  Jim Bowie, in bed with TB, had his bed carried across the line. Tough guys.


The toughest guys you know. If you are looking for a tough guy, one needs look no further than a man, who married a woman, treated her right, and reared their children to do right. He did this in our modern day insane society.  He did this without hiding behind his woman’s skirts, without whining, and without violence.  He did this in the face of hostility and ridicule from society.  They are not in the news, but tough guys are not hard to find.