November 04, 2004
Sitting down
I was at James Madison University, preparing to talk with faculty and students about plagiarism, when John Kerry made his concession speech. Throughout the day, as I talked with old friends Kurt Schick and Hollie Young, and as I met their students and colleagues, the failed election hung like a cloud. All I could think was that I have to work harder; I have to investigate my options for political activism. At JMU, as I talked about student plagiarism, I also talked about government officials' plagiarism as they built their case for war. But all this talk is not enough. Voting is not enough. We have to get rhetorically smarter if we're going to effect change in our repressive political scene.
Fortunately, of course, I'm not alone in these thoughts. At DailyKos, DHinMi observes the "off to Canada" movement and says,
We're at one of those junctures in our history where people need to figuratively sit down. We can not flee. We can't leave the work of building and strengthening a progressive majority to hold of Bush and the rightwing to someone else.
And Steve Parks has set up a blog for the CCCC Progressive Caucus for that very purpose: "building and strengthening a progressive majority." This promises to be an important resource for people like me, people who feel they simply have to do more over the next four years.
Posted by senioritis at November 4, 2004 08:23 PM
Comments
thank you. for at least saying "rhetorically smarter." i've been arguing w/one of my dear friends about what i consider to be the absolutely awful let's-all-be-stupid-together implications of this article for almost a week now.
Posted by: tyra at November 8, 2004 06:35 AM
http://www.livejournal.com/users/tyratae/
(that would be THIS article. apparently links & text features don't show up in your comment box. noted for future reference!)
Posted by: tyra at November 8, 2004 06:36 AM
http://slate.msn.com/id/2109079/
oh, for crying out loud.
!!!
Posted by: tyra at November 8, 2004 06:37 AM
Whether Saletan's right about Edwards, I don't know--but his principle is a good one.
Posted by: senioritis at November 8, 2004 07:37 AM