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Remember past year's experiences and vote
© St. Petersburg Times Heard enough about 9/11 yet? Properly memorializing a day like none other in history is harder than it sounds. A nation that had Norman Schwarzkopf dancing on stage with Mickey Mouse celebrating the end of the Gulf War has much self-examining to do in the areas of taste and excess when contemplating tomorrow's date. And if we aren't careful, excess has a way of winning. On a day like tomorrow people will want to launch everything from live doves to hot air balloons; to festoon every available surface with flags; and to combine solemn processions with patriotic country songs, airplane fly-bys and more political speeches than any of us want to hear. At the same time, who could or would remain silent? Pearl Harbor veterans still wince when newspapers forget to mark anniversaries of that attack. This horror, still fresh in our minds, will undoubtedly be the occasion of fervent remembrances for the rest of our lives. Maybe it is a fitting subject for consideration today, as those of us in Florida are called on to exercise one of the freedoms that everyone will be talking, and talking, and talking about tomorrow -- the right to vote. For the most part we hold the interface between government and reality at arm's length. Interest rates are adjusted to fuel or cool the economy. Long, rambling speeches are made in the houses of Congress, frequently late at night when nobody but a few bored clerks listen. We want water to come out of our taps, a place for the sewage to go when we flush our toilets, roads reasonably free of potholes, firefighters to put out our fires and cops to keep the bad guys away. Many of us throughout the years came to see the flavor of American politics as bland vanilla, with parties and the talking heads that represent them indistinguishable from one another. Any real statement of policy was couched carefully in the language of doublespeak to provide for future deniability. We were, for a while, the only society where politicians could say things like, "that depends on what your definition of the word "is' is," and keep a straight face. We still use phrases like "change of regime" when we mean assassinating a head of state, but coming from the tradition that produced the sentence, "We had to destory the village in order to save it," that shouldn't be a surprise. But what should have been brought home to us this year, more forcibly than ever before, is that it really does matter who runs things and that our individual votes, especially here in Florida, sometimes do count. It matters who runs things because they decide matters far more crucial than where to put a new presidential library or to which brutally repressive regimes we should grant favored trading status. It matters who wages war in our name and who places our sons and daughters in harm's way. This is not a presidential election year, but it is an election year for members of Congress responsible for providing checks and balances with other branches of government. I can't stress enough that it was the actions of state and county officials in Florida that, for better or worse, all but created the current power structure. It was a mayor in New York City who emerged as one of the heroes of 9/11, demonstrating a level of competency that should make those who don't have the same kind of faith in their city officials lie awake at night. This isn't a partisan plea. Millions of Americans think the current administration does a fine job and that the course it has set is the right one. Millions don't. Millions should realize today that the people we choose to speak with our voice are empowered to take actions affecting every one of us at the most basic levels. One of the most overused concepts after the 9/11 tragedy was that doing this or that would give the terrorists a victory. Don't buy a new car, and the terrorists win. Don't take a vacation, and the terrorists win. Voting today may or may not guarantee victory to one side or the other, but the chances that it will play an integral part are too great to ignore.
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Times columns today Mary Jo Melone Ernest Hooper Jan Glidewell Gary Shelton From the Times North Suncoast desks Editorial Letters Letters Editorial |
