"Election determines fate of nation"


"In that this will be my last column before the presidential election,
there will be no sarcasm, 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 stood 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 you don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can
defeat them in the newsroom.  They learned that a wounded America can
become a defeated America.  Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily
tracing 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 W.W.II generation is its ‘greatest
generation’.  But my greatest fear is that it will become known as
America's 'last generation.'  Born in the bleakness of the Great
Depression and hardened in the fire of WW 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 in America' 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, my
generation, which has 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."

Mathew Manweller

Couldn't have said it better, myself!  :)

So many Garys ..so..
"Clyde"