ELECT A BUSH MAJORITY IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE
DEFEAT DASCHLE/CLINTON/GEPHARDT DEMOCRATS!
Posted on 11/04/2002 6:41:34 PM PST by Interesting Times
They knew each other well, though few had ever met.
They hailed from many places, represented many traditions, moved in social circles high or low, yet met together as equals.
Some were experts in specialized fields of study: law, engineering, business, medicine, politics, journalism, software, physics, astronomy, too many others to count. Others were writers, homemakers, musicians, analysts, visionaries. Together, they possessed more knowledge than any university. At their fingertips lay the world.
They held these things in common: a respect for facts, a hunger for truth, a love of freedom. The electronic home that connected them was the idea of a single man, who had seen a great Republic under siege and had dedicated his life to its restoration.
Though the group they formed was without precedent, it represented an age-old dream -- that the people might know the truth about their leaders, and have the power to act on that knowledge.
And so they worked to make the dream real.
They researched, recorded, analyzed, petitioned, protested, denounced infiltrators and welcomed amazed newcomers. They prayed for their injured and their ill, for their country, for strength in a turbulent time. They had no formal leaders, and rarely agreed on strategies, tactics, or goals. Some became weary and dropped away. Some left in bursts of outrage. But others pressed on, and the ungainly, loosely-coupled organization gathered momentum.
They built libraries of information, scouted and subverted their opponents, formed alliances, and wrote their words across the sky. A thousand outrages drew a swift response -- the college president honoring a murderer, the actor calling for violence in pretended jest, the journalist lying for his benefactors. All the while, the relentless threshing machine of their discourse winnowed fiction from fact, reality from layers of dissembling.
Among them were heroes, willing to stand before a corrupt and corrupting leader more powerful than any ancient king and name his evil deeds to his face. Others worked to educate the people; arguing, informing, explaining, shining light on acts committed in darkness. Their ideas began to appear in newpapers and magazines, were repeated on the radio, on television.
And as they began to change the world, they also changed each other, shaping and tempering their understanding in a thousand debates. The deceptions of the old order became first visible, then obvious, then predictable. Armed with new resolve and formidable understanding, they carried sparks of resistance back to families, friends, communities.
They saw the machinery of tyranny set into position, and fought for time, knowing that time was short. They lost battles and won them. They watched in anger as the corrupt leader evaded justice; then in grim satisfaction as his chosen successor was compelled to deny his desire to disarm the people.
And for some, history's terrible pendulum seemed to hesitate...
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Tomorrow the Republic stands, once again, before the crossroads. So, tonight, in cities and villages, on farms and on mountaintops, in their homes across a great continent and beyond, they wait.
They wait, but they do not wait alone.
-- Randy Newman
Indeed....no revisions necessary....every word is still right on the mark.
Thanks!
Regards,
TS
I am praying that for once in our lives we can set this great nation on the right course - conservatism.
For the moment, I'll settle for a Republican Senate...
"Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more"
It's time to bring this back.
If you were to re-write this, you could include taking down Dan Rather.
Along with a number of other things. I could also edit it just a tad...
Thanks for bringing this piece back -- it's kind of an old friend.
BUMP
To a lot of us.
I originally posted this the night before the 2000 election. Most of the movers and shakers of the Free Republic of 4 years ago added their thoughts to that thread, which, alas, has vanished into the mists of cyberspace...
I've been sweating how my kids would turn out with all the brainwashing etc. I've been careful not to push my thinking too hard on them for fear they vote the opposite just to "rebel".
Foudn out my 18 year old daughter has joined the Young Republicans at Univ of Alabama. Hooray! My son is heavy into bio-medical engr and would be a Republican except for the stem cell issue. Still think he'll vote for Bush though.
When everything that can be done has been done, we should all stop and say a prayer that God give us the strength to accept whatever happens.
I continue to pray that we can all rejoice together again on November 3rd.
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