I have had several encounters with a skunk. My latest came recently. We were staying in the guesthouse on a picturesque cattle farm. Alma went to bed as I read downstairs.

Soon she screamed, "French, I smell a skunk!" The book has not been written yet to hold one's attention in that scenario. My nose picked up the scent as I rushed upstairs. For sure it was a skunk. If you ever smell one, you never forget that terrible odor.

Remembering the bathroom window upstairs was the only one that was open. I rushed to close it in record time.

But it was too late. The cool evening breeze had been blowing right through the window and had permeated the air in the bedroom with the calling card of the wandering skunk.

"French, do something!" Alma cried with her voice muffled by the sheet she had pulled over her head. "Well, sweetheart, just be thankful the skunk is not in the house but out in the yard somewhere," I said, calmly in an effort to comfort and stall for time while I tried to think of something to do. My words were little comfort to her. "I can't stand this," she said, "I can't breathe, much less sleep."

As I stood there looking heavenward for some divine guidance, my eyes focused on the ceiling fan. I quickly turned it on and soon it had dispersed the odor.

The next evening as Alma was preparing for bed she looked through the closed - you better believe it was closed - bathroom window and quickly called me. Walking along a pasture fence was a huge black skunk with a wide white stripe down its back.

You may surmise, I am not fond of skunks. No encounter with them has ever been pleasant. There is something, however, that irritates me even more than a skunk with a white stripe down its back. Human beings with a yellow stripe down their back.

What has happened to intestinal fortitude? Has our nation become a nation of many folks without guts or courage? If you read and listen to the news, you must wonder. Millions of unborns continue to be murdered - we call it abortion - and far too many lack the courage to shout:

This is wrong and must stop!"... The liberal left calls certain behavior acceptable that God says is an abomination to Him, and few have the guts to say, "This is unacceptable and we will not tolerate it!"... Too many elected officials vote in the best interest of self and party rather than what is best for the country, because they lack the courage to put Biblical truth above political correctness. Some in our nation would surrender to the terrorists, lacking the guts to fight and defend our nation... Authorities, public and school, allow rules and laws to be broken and few lack the courage to cry out; "You will not go unpunished"... Thousands of immigrants are here illegally, and government officials say they can't do anything about them. Is it they can't or they lack the courage it takes to do it? Few have the guts to rise up and say, "We will not roll over and play dead while others take over our beloved country."

As you enter the Cherokee County Public Library, stop, look at the bronze plaques. Here is inscribed the names of 111 from Cherokee County who died inWorld War I and II, Korea, and Vietnam to keep our nation free and safe. Pause to honor them and give thanks to God for them and those fighting today, for being people of courage and guts. Without them there would be no United States today. And without people of courage and guts today, there will be no United States tomorrow!

(Dr. French O'Shields is a Gaffney native and a retired Presbyterian minister.)