Future historians will look back on the week after Thanksgiving 2010 as the "point of no return." Will Fox News (have you noticed how some lefties sneeringly pronounce it as if it were spelled Fucks News?) convince America this week that Rupert Murdock should become JEB Bush's Commissar of Information or will America turn on the Republicans and endorse unfettered access to accurate information?
When Paul von Hindenburg decided to grant the leader of a minority faction the chance to be named chancellor, it was (to coin a new meaning for an old geometry phrase) a fulcrum moment. He did not realize that the lives of millions depended on his response. The instant he replied the course of history changed and their fate was sealed.
Someone with much more computing expertise than this columnist, could probably assemble a montage of moments from Western movies when someone yells: "Come on, boys, let's string him up!" and juxtapose it with some Republican sound bytes from this past week and get the point across. (It seems doubtful that Jon Stewart is reading this, but if he is; he has my permission to use this suggestion for a video segment.)
The New York Times, which this columnist has vigorously criticized previously, took a historic and commendable stand with their coverage of the latest WikiLeaks document dump. At an event held this week in Berkeley, a member of the audience shouted out the idea that Julian Assange should get the next Nobel Peace Prize. Isn't he a leading contender for the "Time Man of the Year" award (which is given for news value and not as an accolade)?
Americans are facing a fulcrum moment. Americans can repudiate the Republican reaction to Assange or they can raise their hand in "the German salute" and prove that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Omar Khayyam once said:
"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
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