That wonderful generation of

men and women probably talk quietly among themselves, lamenting this self-absorbed

baby-boomer generation's use of the word "war." Indeed,

if our parents were in charge, I doubt if Bill Clinton would have been

elected to humiliate and embarrass America, for two terms, and leave unpunished

the earlier attack on the WTC in 1993. If they were still in charge, Saudi

Arabia and some other middle eastern real estate might look like the pictures

coming back from the surface of Mars.

World War II was a lesson from

our parents on how to preserve the safety and order of our own United

States of America, our home, our society. All stops were pulled out, and

the Germans and Japanese were pummeled into their own dirt, face down,

never to return to whatever "glory" they think they had.

I sometimes wonder if the election

of 2000 was not one of the only modern-day interventions by God witnessed

wimpy and apologetic behavior of Al Gore and whatever administration he

would have put together, should he had been the President on that day

in September of 2001?

We now face what I think could

be a devastating election for 2004. Blind hatred for our President, in

the face of three years of no attacks on our soil, runs unabated outside

the borders of Fayette County. Many of us, in order to work every day

and coexist with our memory-impaired coworkers, will simply have to not

speak of politics, or consider relocation to Canada.

There is a museum in Peachtree

City, at the airport, and it is a memorial to WWII. The elderly, dignified

and polite men that lecture there will tell you a story or two about a

war that many of them fought in, most of them teenagers way back then,

leaping into the cockpits of P-51s, B-17s, Thunderbolts, clear in their

minds that this flight may be their last, clear in their minds the faces

of teenagers they knew who simply disappeared during a mission.

I have no idea how or where

they got their courage to step into those combat aircraft, to step off

those landing craft, to face off across the sea with massive guns. I hope

I can glean a modicum of that courage to face the caterwauling of the

coming election.

G. Baldwin

Peachtree City, Ga.