Posted on 10/25/2004 8:52:40 AM PDT by happydogdesign
Since this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm and no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high.
This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication, and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands.
If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold.
First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things.
Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis, and walked upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations. The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from who we are.
Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that they don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when the country can be defeated in the newsroom. Terrorists learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America.
Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily tracking polls will do the heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grizzly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of the American people. Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration without setting foot on the homeland.
It is said that America's World War II generation is its ''greatest generation.'' But my greatest fear is that it will become known as America's ''last great generation.'' Born in the bleakness of the Great Depression and hardened in the fire of World War II, they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning of duty, honor, and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not all) in my generation. Too many citizens today mistake ''living inAmerica'' as ''being an American.'' But America has always been more of an idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate. You accept a set of values and responsibilities.
This November, members of my generation, which have been absent too long, must grasp the obligation that comes with being an American, or fade into the oblivion they may deserve.
I believe that 100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004 and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill."
This article appears first in the Henry Mark Holzer Newsletter and was reprinted by permission.
About the Writer: Mathew Manweller is a political science professor at Central Washington University.
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Kerry's Dishonorable Discharge
http://federalistpatriot.us/current/
"...As many Vietnam veterans who served their nation with dignity and honor will recall,
Jimmy Carter's first official act as president was the signing
Executive Order 11967
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/codification/executive_order/11967.html
and Presidential Proclamation 4483
http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/carter_proclamation.htm
--less than an hour after his inauguration on 21 January 1977. EO 11967 and Presidential Proclamation 4483
provided general amnesty for draft evaders, war protesters and other offenders of that era.
Its corresponding, and equally dubious, DoD directive took effect in March of 1977,
expanding that amnesty to include separation from military service by other than honorable discharges.
The DoD specified an appeal procedure whereby discharges could be reviewed on an individual basis
to determine whether the status of a particular discharge could be revised..."
The whole 42:09 Stolen Honor online FREE right now! E-mail it NOW!
http://www.buttondepress.com/BostonManifesto/stolenhonor.wmv
Stolen Honor nails Kerry and the VVAW
and how they lied at Winter Soldier.
And how Kerry lied to the US Senate in 1971
And how Kerry and his pack of liars caused our POW's to suffer!
Kerry and the DNC cannot stop
EVERYONE on the internet from seeing this!
http://www.buttondepress.com/BostonManifesto/stolenhonor.wmv
E-mail the FREE 3:52 clip to everyone NOW!
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Free online version of
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http://ejsmithweb.com/fr/newsoldier/
The Swiftvets news conference on C-SPAN can be found here.
AND other valuable Video and Audio links.
http://www.peteandrews.net/media.htm
Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick
Don't let ABC, AP, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC
give the election to Kerry like they did Gore
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1255413/posts
Great article! Really, what it Kerry's policy (to the extent he has one)? One word: RETREAT! I don't think that has ever won an election, and it shouldn't now.
Of course it will be the first presidential election of this century.
Here's their whole strategy:
After Nov. 2nd, the PA economy sure will miss that big influx of ad dollars.
That's about right!
I won't be in my municipality on Election Day, I'll be working the polls.
Very smart. The Kerry voters will do anything -- and I mean anything -- to keep Bush from winning, as they've proved with their violent attacks on Bush/Cheney facilities. I shudder to think what they'll try to do on election day.
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