23.9.04
Two Things
These really get to the heart of it:
-Josh Marshall, as usual, gets it right:
This is it. This is what I'm terrified of. Almost every time humanity has tried some grand social experiment, it's failed. But the United States has succeded - haltingly, stutteringly, with constant awfulnesses and near-reversals, but succeded where others failed. There has never been a nation as prosperous, pluralistic and free as ours is.
I really, really, really don't want that "is" to turn into a "was."
For so many reasons - for so many - but the big one is that the United States in many very real and important ways embodies hope for humanity's ability to better itself. And if we don't have that...
-Josh Marshall, as usual, gets it right:
This afternoon, after John Kerry said that Iyad Allawi was painting an overly rosy picture of the situation in Iraq, Dick Cheney said "John Kerry is trying to tear down all the good that has been accomplished, and his words are destructive to our effort in Iraq and in the global war on terror."
In other words, democracy in America is harmful to building democracy in Iraq.
-And E.L. Doctorow both gets it really right:
"[George W. Bush] does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.and hits on my greatest fear:
But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be."
"...the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind."
This is it. This is what I'm terrified of. Almost every time humanity has tried some grand social experiment, it's failed. But the United States has succeded - haltingly, stutteringly, with constant awfulnesses and near-reversals, but succeded where others failed. There has never been a nation as prosperous, pluralistic and free as ours is.
I really, really, really don't want that "is" to turn into a "was."
For so many reasons - for so many - but the big one is that the United States in many very real and important ways embodies hope for humanity's ability to better itself. And if we don't have that...
I'll be quiet now.
Just...we gotta win this shit. Please?
perma-linky posted by jkd : 22:08
