Those Who Own the Goalposts

John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State:

"The bottom line is [Edward Snowden] has betrayed his country, sitting in Russia where he has taken refuge," he said. "You know, he should man up and come back to the United States."

Abby Huntsman, TV host and granddaughter of a billionaire:

"Snowden needs to come home and face the music. That takes courage. Until then he's just a coward."

From The Doubter's Companion by John Ralston Saul, president of PEN international and one of my favorite writers on earth:

The idea of unregulated warfare appeals to our foolish self-pride by suggesting that only a weakling, a coward or an incompetent could be afraid to come out from behind artificial protection in order to fight like a man. Of course only a fool rises to this kind of taunting...

History is filled with a long list of small armies and small nations who have risen to the taunts of large neighbors. The next recorded event is their destruction...

In short, the people who cry loudest...fall into two categories: those who own the goalposts and fools.

—Jon Schwarz