Posted on 07/19/2002 4:30:04 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
" Even if, in the end, you do not prevail -- though you must -- you will have done right, and the ghosts of those who came before you over many thousands of years, of those who fell unknown and unremembered while doing right, of those who upheld against all pressures and in the face of wounding opposition, will be justly honored, as you will be justly honored, by those who come after you."
Thank you for posting this.
From his Sept. 2000 article on the real threat of terrorism:
... according to "Back Channels," the Washington Post's regular column on intelligence. "More Americans have died from scorpion bites," the Post reveals as if to mock those who would picnic under meteorite shields, "than from foreign terrorist attacks over the past five years. But that didn't stop the National Commission on Terrorism from describing the terrorist threat in vastly exaggerated terms" in June. Exaggerated how? "The commission concluded in its recent report that international terrorists are increasingly intent on inflicting 'mass casualties.'" The Post columnist knows this is an exaggeration, because "the number of Americans killed by foreign terrorists has dropped from more than 400 in 1983 to 58 over the past five years." As any enlightened person can see, the trend makes "mass casualties" extremely unlikely.
Unlike his predecessor, today's newly elected president will not have a foundation of good stewardship to build on, but eight years in which the seed corn has been eaten. He may have to guide the nation into and through real war, before the military is properly prepared. He may have to endure a recession and the anger of a public that now believes that prosperity grows without pause. This, of course, will not be easy, as the fact that all the parties are at the beginning would suggest.
Winning the presidency is not the end of a long road, it is the beginning. It is not the end of work, a relief, but the beginning of work, a burden. It is not a triumph, as new presidents sometimes believe, but a challenge. The triumph, if it comes at all, comes only with the judgement of history, and it is to the judgement of history that, if he is elected, George W. Bush should devote himself, for his sake and ours.
Mr. Helprin is a novelist, a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute. This will be his final weekly column.
How prophetic!
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