These are the times

These are really stressful times for West Virginia's education workers, all of whom want to get back to work when a decent settlement has been reached. At such times, it might be good to remember that those who came before us faced much worse challenges and came through. For the last year or so, I've gone back over and over to these lines by Thomas Paine, America's most rebellious founder:

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."-- The Crisis, 1776.