Someone I respect taking a stand

Whenever people talk about taking a stand, my mind always goes to the story of King Leonidas, 300 Spartans, and a few hundred other Greek warriors taking a stand against the Persian empire. The Greeks didn't want to be under Persian rule, under the tyranny of King Xerxes, and they took a stand for Democracy, and for the rest of the world. The Spartans actually saved the entire western world, because the Persians probably wouldn't have stopped at just taking over Greece. They would have gone on to the rest of Europe and maybe even to America. Think about that and how this was probably the greatest stand of all time.

The Spartans stand was so impressive because of how badly the Spartans were outnumbered. There actually were more than 300 Spartans in the battle, mainly a few thousand Greek soldiers added to the Spartans forces, but when compared to the Persians estimated army of a quarter of a million, give or take a few, it doesn't make it look better. The Spartans had to have had a death wish or something because, if I saw a quarter of a million people coming at me wanting to kill me, I would hightail myself away from there. But to stand and fight, and take down quite a few of the Persians along the way, that is just beastly.

As I said before in the intro chunk of the blog, the Spartans helped to stop the Persians from conquering Greece and the rest of Europe. When the Persians conquered Greece, they probably would have gone on to the countries surrounding Greece, then Italy, then Spain, France, Germany, England...who knows how far they would've gotten? Everyone in America may have had a name like Xerxes or Achmed instead of Bob or Steve if Persia had been able to conquer America. But the Spartans held up the Persians so long and gave them enough trouble that the rest of Greece could unite and stop the invasion. Pretty impressive, huh?

The Spartans stand, not only being an impressive military event, but is also an example of why people stand up in the first place: to protect their homes and their families. That's what the Spartans were doing. They knew that if they waited until after the feast for the gods or whatever religious ceremony( I don't remember correctly), they would give the Persians time to set up a foothold on Greece and the whole nation would be doomed. The battle ended in the Spartans losing the battle, but Greece eventually won the war in triumph.

The Spartans took a stand and are now famous for it. Nearly everyone has heard of this stand thanks to the movie 300. While the actually battles probably weren't as dramatic as the movie made them to be( but how cool would it be to go in slow motion when you did something cool?), the basic theme was there. This was the greatest stand of all time, in my opinion.