Character Corner: Be courageous Published Aug. 12, 2009 By Capt. Nate Renes Center for Character Development U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- According to Webster, Courage is a mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. At the Air Force Academy, Courage is one of our Tier II Outcomes and we focus on three aspects of courage: moral courage, physical courage, and mental courage. We have all displayed moments of courage in our lives -- whether it was during basic training, jumping out of an airplane, soloing in a glider or an airplane, working in a deployed environment or any other event in our life that required each of us to have courage. You are courageous. Although most people see courage as the defining moments in their lives, I offer an alternate view of courage. Let us view courage as a way of life. Cadets who follow their dreams demonstrate courage. People who raise a family alone demonstrate courage. Children with no hope who work every day to make their lives better demonstrate courage. I would hope that courage could be demonstrated in our everyday life. We must have the moral courage to stand up for what we know is right, the courage to abide by the laws and policies we all have sworn to uphold, and the courage to hold other people accountable to those same laws and policies. This everyday courage is not easy, nor is it without fear, but if we live out this everyday courage, we will be truly courageous people. Tune into KAFA, 97.7 FM for "Character Matters", starting Aug. 13 at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. You can also listen to KAFA at http://www.usafa.org.