Wednesday November 03, 2004 at 3:11 PM
Disappointed but not defeated
Appearing in Politics
I wish I had more encouraging words of my own, but since I don’t, I’m going to quote at length from David Orr writing in Grist Magazine. Check out the full catalog of environmental activists writing about what comes next.
For myself, I’d say this: don’t allow your disappointment to give way to dispair.
The arc of history is long. And while this election has shown us the ugly, intolerant, and blind underbelly of American society, it has also shown that the causes of justice, truth, and activism are alive, well, and still quite capable of putting up one hell of a fight.
…
David Orr writing in Grist Magazine’s Main Dish:
First, let’s get the name of the thing right. The election of 2004 confirms James Madison’s worst nightmare: the takeover of all branches of the federal government not just by a single party, but by an extreme faction of that party.
Second, let’s be clear about where we are headed. We the people are about to get more corruption, more division, more lies, more terrorism, more pollution, more breaks for the wealthy, more religious fanaticism, more corporate subsidies, more kids left behind, more struggling families, more debt piled on the backs of our children, more urban neglect, more nutty ideology, and further procrastination on the issue of potentially catastrophic climate change looming just ahead.
Third, the long-term objectives are clear: restore democracy to the United States by eliminating money from politics, reassert public control of the airwaves, restore a free, locally owned press, repair the frayed separation between church and state, and educate the people once again to be discerning citizens. How can we do such things? The same way all great and noble things are accomplished — with patience, courage, energy, certainty, and a mastery of the art of strategy. The soft underbelly of the Bush-Cheney-Rove empire includes all thoughtful conservatives disturbed by recklessness; all honest persons offended by mendacity; and all true Christians sufficiently alert to notice the discrepancy between the words and life of the “Prince of Peace” and our foreign and domestic policies.
And we have no energy for despair!
:: David Orr is chair of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College and author of The Last Refuge, The Nature of Design, and Earth in Mind.
