Think with Courage liner notes:

"Don’t tread on me, or my family.
That’s what I believe -- but it’s a two way street."

This album speaks in opposition to war, against the initiation of non-defensive war. It does not speak against self-defense, or defense of one’s nation. In support of those young and old who serve in defense of our nation, this album speaks out against unnecessary war.

Only wars that are truly defensive in nature can be morally justified. The American people are tired of losing their children to wars that are invariably exposed as unnecessary and counter-productive, both words hopelessly understating the suffering caused by war.

Modern war entails more civilian casualties than military casualties, and involves unfathomable cruelties against civilians and soldiers alike. Unjustified war degrades our dignity and our institutions in multiple unseen ways.

In war, truth is the first casualty. The most dangerous part of government grows most rapidly under the veil of secrecy and disinformation. War is the path to a more powerful, less democratic, more intrusive and more totalitarian state.

We now have been constantly at war since 2002. Predictably, there has been a further metastasis of unaccountable government agencies. A pervasive infrastructure of surveillance has been created. Under this shadow of threat, our elected representatives are certain targets. The political process has undoubtedly been compromised by the threat of exposure and blackmail. There are many who aim to politicize and control every aspect of our lives.

In a society once famous for its ideals of liberty, free market competition and representative government, this politicized infrastructure of surveillance guarantees the opposite: the loss of liberties, economic failure, and oligarchy.

To a far greater extent than Eisenhower feared, control of US foreign policy by the war industry and the deep state has become embedded in our economy and politics, and unduly influenced by domestic and foreign lobbies.

Interests vested in constant war lash out against the remote prospect of constraint, using timeworn propaganda techniques.
We have been repeatedly duped into believing that we are under a threat that can only be addressed by a stronger and less accountable government.

Repeatedly, young lives are stolen by lies and subterfuge for political gain. Those lies become dangerous and taboo, suppressed by those who led us into war under false pretexts. Those lies become history, and from that sanitized court history we fail to learn, and fall victim again to unnecessary interventions and war.

Don’t believe the mongers of war.

It is my hope that this album contributes to the constant effort necessary to preclude unnecessary war. When the marches come, it is too late. Lyrics excerpted from this album’s title song, “Think with Courage”, written seventeen years ago, are unhappily, more relevant than ever:

Think with Courage copyright 1999 Kent Scheffler

Absolutely certain feels exactly the same,
whether you’re wrong or you’re right.

Now there are liars bold and audacious.
They’ll lie right through their teeth; they’ll lie with both their faces.
But the dangerous liars mostly lie to themselves.
And that shoe always fits everybody else.

The pen is stronger than the sword,
But Truth is the first casualty of war.
Lawyers, preachers, politicians love the Word.
You’re the one they want to do the thinking for.

The patriotic high ground gets claimed with a tear.
Our sons and daughters come home maimed, or burned.
Someone’s lobby bought your government’s ear.
How many times before we’ve learned?

So take this message with a grain of salt.
I just want you to think about it.
Things may not be as simple as we thought.
God gave you a brain, He won’t mind if you use it.
All I’m asking you is to think with courage.
All I’m asking you is to think with courage.
All I’m asking you is to think with courage.

Kent Scheffler

May 2017