The inexorable action of the tide works relentlessly against the shore. Rocks ignore the fury of the ocean no matter how intense the force.
As I watch the ocean from my beach chair here on the sands of Maui, I am struck that what appears to be the efforts of the water to inundate the land. If one were not educated, what happens every day on these sun-drenched shores could persuade you the ocean was winning a fight with a foe who offers no obvious resistance.
No matter the tempest, no matter the flood, fire, or earthquake the land in its silent stubborn implacable nature is prevailing against the efforts of the sea, to the dismay no doubt of climate alarmists everywhere.
In this tiny island chain in the South Pacific, not only is the land holding its own against the aquatic kingdom, it is inch by inch growing as the resident volcanos spew molten lava expanding the land and pushing back the sea.
The frothing and foaming of the ocean against the shore makes a great show, but in the end, it is the island, not the sea, which is growing.
The efforts of the water against the land are symbolic of the Left’s assault on American culture, politics, and society. A rabid, foaming, seething tempest of heartless, thoughtless, cruel, and insensible intentions. It pours itself into torrents in the form of protests, violence, and hateful rhetoric. It whips the public with pelting sheets of hyperbole and hate.
Like the rocks, I can see from my chair on these golden sands the American populace grimly endures the roil as does the reef the sea. Hard swept and buffeted by a political movement whose aim isn’t reform, but rather raw power, they believe this too shall pass.
In recent American history, the Left has used whatever cause celeb that suits them, the Gulf War, Rodney King, George Floyd, Renee Good and now Alex Pretti as the pretext to riot and more importantly to push a numbed and fatigued electorate into political surrender.
It worked once, when in a collective expression of exasperation and appeasement Joe Biden assumed the presidency.
The Left can’t win on their ideas. We know boys can’t be girls, that there is no nation without borders and enforceable immigration laws, and that fraud and waste aren’t the unavoidable consequences of a compassionate government.
The Left’s strategy isn’t controlled chaos, but actual uninhibited, mindless rage meant to intimidate and bully the American people into voting their way. It is election by extortion. Vote for candidate X or there will be more rioting and unrest. Fire this cabinet member, impeach the president or we’ll just keep throwing bodies on the bonfire.
Democrats, now Socialist Democrats such as Mamdani, or Katie Wilson of Seattle, Bernie Sanders or AOC, are the party of hate and discontent. It is not policy or thought that guides them, but whether blood will run in the streets. Theirs is a party of fear not tolerance. They are counting on Americans, as they did in 2020 with Biden, to be too fed up, too tired, and too intimidated not to do as the Left tells them when it comes time to vote.
In the movie Mulan, the villain, Shan-Yi, demands that the emperor bow to him, yet the monarch unflinchingly replies, “No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.” Neither can the rocks so beaten by the sea move or surrender. It is not stubbornness or foolishness; it is natural law. A law that may be bent but not broken.
Surrounded as it seems we are, and we’re not, we must possess the grace and courage of the emperor. We must have the understanding and wisdom to distinguish between those who seek only power and those who seek the common good. To know in our hearts that destroying something as valuable as our history and common heritage requires only that we stand aside and do nothing.
The Left seeks nothing less than the absolute destruction of our country, its values, and its way of life. They will fight not in defense of others, but rather for their naked ambition. They will sacrifice anything and anyone. George Floyd, Renee Good and Alex Pretti aren’t victims, they are necessary sacrifices for a movement in need of make-believe martyrs.
Eons of tidal movement on the rocks smooths the jagged edges. The Left’s desire is the erosion of your rights. The reshaping they seek is the transforming of free thought and free speech into their approved thinking and speaking. Theirs is a remaking of fundamental freedoms disguised as “tolerance” and “compassion.”
Here in Hawaii, a state as sun dappled as it is blue in its politics, I can see that which God’s hands hath wrought. A beauty of such depth and solemnity that it inspires awe. A place as American as it is Hawaiian. A place where the forces of nature engage in their timeless fight against one another.
We are the rocks and they are the sea.
Stephen Piccirillo © 2025
