Naval captain John Paul Jones immortalized himself and captured the enduring ethos of the American spirit when, in the midst of apparent defeat and catastrophe in 1779, he bellowed his defiance to the enemy, “I have not yet begun to fight!”
What does it mean to be American? It means adhering to the principles set out in our Founding documents, being a strong individualist who loved freedom yet shouldered responsibility, pursuing moral and societal excellence, and protecting America from enemies both foreign and domestic.
Yet while we can list out characteristics and beliefs for a true American, looking at the array of heroes over our two and a half centuries of existence, we can see that each great man and woman was startlingly unique. So if we had to try and reduce all those countless unique heroes’ attitudes into one line, a nearly impossible task, it would not be inappropriate to use Jones’s famous line.
As I attended Charlie Kirk’s memorial this weekend, I was reminded of what an inspirational leader Kirk was and how his widow said that although Charlie loved his life, “he was also ready to die, there was nothing — nothing he was putting off,” and “he left this world without regrets; he did 100% of what he could every day.” Mrs. Kirk added, “Charlie died with uncompleted work, but not with unfinished business.”
Related: The Exceptional Love and Faith of Erika Kirk
Few people can truly say that they give 100% every day! Yet that is what great men have to give — and in America, land of the free and home of the brave, there have been almost whole generations that have given 100%, such as the Revolutionaries and the WWII “Greatest Generation.”
At the memorial, using the name of Kirk’s organization, speakers and attendees alike said that Kirk’s assassination was our turning point. And I think that is true. Americans now have a choice as to whether we’ll submit to tyranny and terrorism out of fear or whether we will be like Jones, Washington, Grant, Lincoln, Douglass, Reagan, Patton, Kirk, and all the other American heroes who shaped history.
On Sept. 23, 1779, the American ship Bonhomme Richard (a reference to Ben Franklin’s almanac) was burning, with its bows having run into the stern of the British ship Serapis. The Americans were in a bad case, and the Serapis hailed them, “Has your ship struck?” Captain John Paul Jones roared back, “I have not yet begun to fight.” He lost his ship but captured the British ship. He did all this while a crowd was watching the conflict from shore, witnessing the underdog Americans conquer the more powerful ship.
Each generation of Americans has a moment when the enemy literally or figuratively torches our world and sneers, “Has your ship struck?” Then we have a choice to make. Charlie Kirk went to the worst hotbeds of leftist fanaticism — universities. He was most fearless when he was most at risk. Like Jones, every time he was threatened, harassed, or smeared, his attitude was, “I have not yet begun to fight.”
But that ought to be our attitude as well. We must take up the torch where Jones, Kirk, and all the other American leaders left off. The radical left, the Democrat Party, wants us to run and cower in fear. But let our voices echo even to the halls of Congress, the classrooms of Ivy League universities, and the mansions of the elites — “We have not yet begun to fight!”
