From the interesting-looking First Draft weblog (found via Michael Froomkin’s Discourse.net) comes this item, in which author Athenae reflects on the energy that Kerry and Edwards seem to be tapping into on the campaign trail: We are many.

During the Second World War, Americans bought war bonds and planted Victory Gardens and saved cooking grease, and maybe all of that was necessary and maybe it wasn’t, but it gave non-military, non-governmental people a way to feel a part of the struggle. It gave them something to do besides sit in their houses, listen to the radio and worry. It gave them a direction for their energy, and it gave them, most of all, the feeling that they had power over world events. Suddenly the war didn’t seem so big anymore, my grandmother told me once, because we were doing something to win it.

For three years now, those of us lucky enough not to have to go to war ourselves have been told by the government that there’s nothing we can do, really. Go on with your lives, Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft tell us, but be very, very afraid. They’re telling us terrorists hate us for stuff we can’t or shouldn’t change, that peace isn’t possible, that the only thing people of good will can do to help matters here at home is to buy, buy, buy.

But shopping doesn’t give people a sense of power over their lives.

This entry was posted by jbc on Monday, August 9th, 2004 at 7:57 am and is filed under the_usa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.