The decline of newspapers is a sad thing. Newspapers are a recent invention and regarded as a unifying and civilizing influence. Lincoln was a great believer in newspapers, except, of course, for the several hundred of them that he shut down during the Civil War because they disagreed with his administration.
Still I lament their passing. I enjoy reading a morning paper over coffee and I'm still old enough that I like to underline and make marginal notes, usually in [violent] disagreement with what was said. It's good intellectual exercise.
I would pay for and read a decent newspaper if any existed. For now, it's Google "News" searches on the Internet.
I must also say that in reading the responses to this thread, I really admire the resolve of people who have responded. I know it seems overwhelming, but the history of our country has been, in so many ways, the history of the triumph of "ordinary" citizens who showed "extraordinary" resolve and determination in the face of overwhelming odds.
I was watching a documentary about the war for independence and the breaking of the siege and blockade of Boston by the Redcoats and the Royal Navy, early in the conflict. British ships bottled up the harbor. A Boston bookseller named Henry Knox ordered military books for British soldiers stationed in Boston and over the years had read many of them in his spare time. He formulated a plan to place artillery on the heights of the city and reign down cannon fire on the British ships in the harbor. Problem: No artillery.
Colonial forces, however, had just defeated and occupied Ft. Ticonderoga 350 miles away and captured many British arillery pieces in the process. General Washington approved Knox's idea and in the dead of winter, hearty colonials dismantled and transported captured artillery 350 miles in the dead of winter over bad roads and assembled them on the heights of Boston. When the British saw what happened, they negotiated for a cease fire in order to withdraw from Boston Harbor. A great, bloodless victory!
An "ordinary" bookseller came forward and helps turn the tide of the war for Independence. An "ordinary" guy who dropped out of school in the 5th grade invented the electric light and hundreds of other inventions: Thomas Edison. Ordinary bicycle mechanics invented the airplane: The Wright Brothers.
Ordinary, rank and file American citizens have turned the tide in the past and I believe they can do it again.
11-25-2009, 05:29 PM
Hybrid Mode
