by
Jon Carroll
All around me is the rending of garments and the beating of breasts. All around me are people on their knees shaking their impotent fists at heaven. All around me people are saying that Bush will win and that therefore they will move to Canada/move to Mexico/join an ashram/go to bed for four years/marry a Republican/acquire ritual tattoos/take too many drugs.
My message to them: Get over yourselves. Retain a grip in reality. This is not the worst time in the history of America -- remember the Civil War? That was a bad time. This is not the nastiest presidential campaign ever -- check out the contest of 1800, starring the soon-to-be-immortal Thomas Jefferson. This is not the first president ever to be held captive by corrupt industrialists -- see the years 1870 through 1900, where candidates were bought and sold like trading cards.
<snip>
First, it's not a lock that Bush is going to win. Polls are just guesses, and the guesses are disagreeing with each other, and for God's sakes it's September. So why is it the time for despair? Sure, Karl Rove is a genius liar, but Richard Nixon was a genius liar too, and he came to a bad end.
And you're giving up now? Now? Let's talk about Poland. Let's talk about 1939. The overwhelming German blitzkrieg overran the country. The Polish army was large and gallant, but it was no match for the Germans. Once the Nazis controlled a town, they began executing people. If one person resisted, the whole town was razed. It took them five days to reach Warsaw.
And what did the Poles do? They kept fighting. England and France had pledged to come to their aid, but England and France backed out. The Polish cause was hopeless, but the Poles fought on. Death rained from the sky, and the Poles fought on. The Nazis installed puppet leaders and marched Jews to death camps and turned their attention westward to Belgium and France -- and the Poles fought on.
<snip>
And you know that Fallujah is on all our consciences. It's no good to walk away and blame Donald Rumsfeld; you are one of the people who can affect what's going on in Fallujah. You can't save the world, but you might save a few lives. And you're going to pick up your marbles and go home? Man, with that attitude Mahatma Gandhi would still be practicing law in South Africa -- and he'd be very, very old.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/21/DDGN58QV7N1.DTL
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