When I was a little boy I used to watch “The Wonderful World of Disney,” and they had heroes. There was Fess Parker playing Davy Crockett. There was Zorro, the Swamp Fox and the Scarecrow. They fought against tyranny.

(The kind of Americans we use to have.)

They did what was right at great risk.

I was a little boy in those far off days. Those characters were my heroes.

So, I have to ask. Do the people running Disney every watch their own programs? Do they care what kind of example they set? Do they look in the mirror and wonder where it all went wrong because wrong it is?

They gave into evil.

They surrendered to an orange make up covered villain. And they did it knowing that they will be bullied again and again. Once the bad guys understand what brought fear and collapsed the spines of the management at Disney, they will do it again and again. Surrender and appeasement never stop. The crawling abasement of the defeated and the cowardly continues forever.

It is said the coward dies a thousand deaths, the hero just one. Well, Disney is on one death among many. I almost pity them.

What happened to doing what was right? What happened to facing the threat of tyranny with courage and resolve?

Was it just programming? They portrayed heroic behavior to beguile children into buying merchandise? Was that all it was, just a con? Or did they at one time believe that Americans had to stand up for what was right?

We’ll never know. For what can they say that we can trust? What can they say that we will believe?

If you don’t have a spine or courage, what won’t you say? What won’t you do to give yourself one more day, one more minute of hiding from the bully, one more desperate plea, “Please don’t hit me! I’ll do anything you want me to!”

Courage is necessary right now. Many Americans are standing up against what is happening.

But not everyone is up to the standard of men and women of courage. They prefer to crawl and we should pity them but never forget that when the time came to take a stand, they ran like hell.

James Alan Pilant