No Surrender

The weak man carries a white flag in his pocket. 

Alert, like us, but watching for the easy path. A path with no blood, sweat, and tears. 

A path with no sacrifice, no pain, no fatigue. 

He steps lightly, afraid to wake the wolves in the forest. 

He carries no weapon, afraid of violence in all its forms. 

He has no secrets (he is weak—what else is there to know?), no accolades, and no stories. 

He has surrendered every day before today, and he will surrender every day after. 

It’s the easy path. We are taught to avoid pain and fatigue, to hide from wolves, to put away our weapons. We are taught to step in line, stand down, and disavow greatness. 

The weak man is eager to please. 

And so he keeps his white flag close. 

We are eager to fight. 

And so our flag is marked with death.

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It’s a black flag with a skull. The skull is ours and it is theirs. It is ours because there is no path we will not walk to achieve our objective, even in the face of death. It is theirs because their siege is fruitless, their pursuit in vain, their war cries flat and dull. 

No Surrender. No Surrender. 

No white flag will raise over this house. 

That is the weak man’s way. 

Our way is death—ours or theirs. We will never surrender, never lower our flag from its glorious height, Never Fucking Quit. 

Though surrounded and outnumbered, though our faces are streaked with mud and our stomachs hungry, our sights are clean and our magazines are well-fed. 

That is the way of strength, of perseverance. Grinding toward the objective, fighting till we are breathless, and loyal while the flag flies. Violence till the last. 

That is not the easy path. It is a starving, brutal grapple with life’s hardest decisions: to get up or lie down, to swing harder or retreat, to reload your weapons or to disavow greatness. 

Even when I am surrounded and the walls are crumbling, when my fleet is on fire and my ship is being boarded, I will Never Fucking Quit. 

No Surrender. No Surrender. 

No white flag over my house, my ship. 

Because while I am breathing, while my heart is beating, I will fight. 

Blood in my hair. Dirty hands. Dust settling. 

Head down. Foot after foot. Breath after breath. 

No Surrender.