The American Spectator

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Count Me In

By CJ Anonymous on 4.12.06 @ 11:15AM

Quin's thoughtful piece on the homepage this morning really resonated with me and I hope our readers will take a moment to read it.

I too have been deeply demoralized by recent developments both at home and abroad. I joked to a friend the other evening, "Eh, the way things are going, I'll give civilization another 20 years at best. Perhaps it's time to stop caring and just start partying….."

I felt awful about that joke. What would my idol, Ronald Reagan, think of a conservative saying something like that, even in jest?

On the surface things are grim indeed and seem to be getting grimmer. But as Quin so ably reminds us, beneath that surface lie many small (and not so small) successes both foreign and domestic which, taken together, add up to enormous potential. We have an opportunity -- well, actually, a mandate -- to profoundly change the World (to paraphrase Newt) and now is not the time to go wobbly, (to paraphrase Mrs. Thatcher).

It is a beautiful day in Washington, DC. This morning, as usual, my commute in to the office took me across the Memorial Bridge. With the Lincoln Memorial facing me and Arlington National Cemetery in my rear view mirror, I slowly passed a hearse going in the opposite direction -- toward the cemetery. I could see the coffin in the hearse only because of the bright colors of the American flag that draped it. In all likelihood, it contained the remains of a young American who gave his life in pursuit of the aforementioned mandate…then, to arrive at the office to find Quin's post, well….lots of food for thought this morning.

Quin writes, "In this Easter week, all our eggs are in (a) rickety basket. All the more reason for us to redouble our efforts to make sure the basket doesn't fail."

Count me in.