Freedom's Checklist

Freedom's Checklist
Things to do tomorrow.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Wednesday, July 3, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT

There's an odd feel to this Independence Day, the first of the sobering era we now date from Sept. 11. The news is full of doomsday speculation. We've all been warned to be on alert; the atmosphere is fraught with the mood of that old joke about the classic Jewish telegram: "Start worrying. Details to follow." Though this is no jest. The threat is real.

Still, one gets the sense that despite all the cautions and alerts, we are not yet entirely serious. Like the ritual three questions we get asked at every airport, whatever they are, the point too often seems to be that worrying is what we are now mainly called on to do, and that that, in itself, is enough. Especially with so many things to worry about--and not just terrorists. There is deep distress over the dark side of corporate America, as we total up our shrinking pension funds and peer horrified into some capitalist netherworld in which a fallen Martha Stewart wanders, wailing, among the tormented spirits of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen.

There are vast forest fires, there is the continuing cult of global warming, and there is much furor over a San Francisco judge's decision worthy of "Gulliver's Travels"--that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. There are spats with our allies over steel, lumber, farm subsidies and Yasser Arafat. And there are the regular denunciations by celebrities who deem America no longer worthy of their presence, the latest on that list being Tom Cruise, who recently opined he'd do better to raise his kids someplace else.

Some of this we can tolerate. America is a grand and generous nation, built to absorb much nonsense and sustain many shocks. The republic will, I suspect, survive the departure of Mr. Cruise (if he actually leaves). And public outrage over the attempt to scrap the Pledge of Allegiance suggests that most ordinary Americans may be well ahead of certain elements of the judiciary and the media in their grasp of priorities. In what I think is a typical reaction, one patriot I know had been planning to order an ice cream cake for a July 4 family gathering, saying "Happy Birthday America." After the Pledge of Allegiance was ruled out, due to its phrase, "under God," he decided instead to order a cake decorated with "God Bless America."

Satisfying, in its way. But it will take more than icing to defend our nation. And while no one could reasonably expect an uninterrupted flow of sweet sense from Washington, there is a certain amount of nonsense going on that is frustrating to watch because it is genuinely dangerous. If we really want to honor this great nation, not by worrying but by actually taking measures that will matter, here are a few ways to start. Call it a wish list for America's 226th birthday.

Get our war priorities straight. We knocked out the Taliban and terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and that was a good first step. President Bush named the axis of evil, defined a policy to defeat it and recently declared a policy of pre-emptive action against our enemies. But for months now, we have been chewing up time, focused on Yasser Arafat and his promises and grievances and suicide bombers. Our real problems with terrorism lie elsewhere. When do we deal with Saddam Hussein? When do we stop subsidizing--thereby propping up--the "evil" North Korean regime? When do we pressure the Russians into stopping the "evil" Iranian regime from attaining nuclear weapons?

Clean up our act on trade. The Declaration of Independence, which we honor tomorrow, specifically chides King George III for "cutting off our Trade with All Parts of the World." These days, our own politicians seem intent on replicating that problem--as far as they can get away with it. At a moment when America needs the wealth and friendship of trade, this is downright unpatriotic. Where do our steel makers and lumber lobbyists, and the legislators who harbor them, get the idea that their narrow interests should rank above those of America itself? Imagine the gains if Washington were to concentrate thoroughly on its real job of defense, and let producers spend less of their energy on lobbying.

Stop buying the farm. When will we wise up about farm subsidies? Farmers used to be heroes in this country--the rugged souls who turned the wild land into the fruited plain. Americans, as they get socked with taxes to pay for ever more pork, are taking note, and it doesn't do much to breed unity, or wealth, or anything else you'd actually want. This country deserves farmers who don't regard the dole as another crop. Were we using these funds to build--at emergency speed--a missile defense, while more farmers earned an honest living, wouldn't life feel a bit better?

Stop carrying on about the apocalypse of capitalism. We had a huge boom in a market full of new factors during an era in which President Clinton defined morals right down to the floor. Now reality is auditing the markets. There is much educational value to that, and if we manage to resist the urge to regulate ourselves into deeper problems, we will learn better how to cope, and life will, in fact, go on.

That's just a partial wish list, and maybe parts of it can be dismissed as wildly unrealistic. But America can do mighty things--including reform itself--once it sets its will to the task. Focusing on these matters would get us a lot further than worrying about the demise of capitalism, the end of the world, and whether or not we should call, in the process, on God.

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Wednesdays here and in The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Freedom's Checklist

Freedom's Checklist
Things to do tomorrow.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Wednesday, July 3, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT

There's an odd feel to this Independence Day, the first of the sobering era we now date from Sept. 11. The news is full of doomsday speculation. We've all been warned to be on alert; the atmosphere is fraught with the mood of that old joke about the classic Jewish telegram: "Start worrying. Details to follow." Though this is no jest. The threat is real.

Still, one gets the sense that despite all the cautions and alerts, we are not yet entirely serious. Like the ritual three questions we get asked at every airport, whatever they are, the point too often seems to be that worrying is what we are now mainly called on to do, and that that, in itself, is enough. Especially with so many things to worry about--and not just terrorists. There is deep distress over the dark side of corporate America, as we total up our shrinking pension funds and peer horrified into some capitalist netherworld in which a fallen Martha Stewart wanders, wailing, among the tormented spirits of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen.

There are vast forest fires, there is the continuing cult of global warming, and there is much furor over a San Francisco judge's decision worthy of "Gulliver's Travels"--that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. There are spats with our allies over steel, lumber, farm subsidies and Yasser Arafat. And there are the regular denunciations by celebrities who deem America no longer worthy of their presence, the latest on that list being Tom Cruise, who recently opined he'd do better to raise his kids someplace else.

Some of this we can tolerate. America is a grand and generous nation, built to absorb much nonsense and sustain many shocks. The republic will, I suspect, survive the departure of Mr. Cruise (if he actually leaves). And public outrage over the attempt to scrap the Pledge of Allegiance suggests that most ordinary Americans may be well ahead of certain elements of the judiciary and the media in their grasp of priorities. In what I think is a typical reaction, one patriot I know had been planning to order an ice cream cake for a July 4 family gathering, saying "Happy Birthday America." After the Pledge of Allegiance was ruled out, due to its phrase, "under God," he decided instead to order a cake decorated with "God Bless America."

Satisfying, in its way. But it will take more than icing to defend our nation. And while no one could reasonably expect an uninterrupted flow of sweet sense from Washington, there is a certain amount of nonsense going on that is frustrating to watch because it is genuinely dangerous. If we really want to honor this great nation, not by worrying but by actually taking measures that will matter, here are a few ways to start. Call it a wish list for America's 226th birthday.

Get our war priorities straight. We knocked out the Taliban and terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and that was a good first step. President Bush named the axis of evil, defined a policy to defeat it and recently declared a policy of pre-emptive action against our enemies. But for months now, we have been chewing up time, focused on Yasser Arafat and his promises and grievances and suicide bombers. Our real problems with terrorism lie elsewhere. When do we deal with Saddam Hussein? When do we stop subsidizing--thereby propping up--the "evil" North Korean regime? When do we pressure the Russians into stopping the "evil" Iranian regime from attaining nuclear weapons?

Clean up our act on trade. The Declaration of Independence, which we honor tomorrow, specifically chides King George III for "cutting off our Trade with All Parts of the World." These days, our own politicians seem intent on replicating that problem--as far as they can get away with it. At a moment when America needs the wealth and friendship of trade, this is downright unpatriotic. Where do our steel makers and lumber lobbyists, and the legislators who harbor them, get the idea that their narrow interests should rank above those of America itself? Imagine the gains if Washington were to concentrate thoroughly on its real job of defense, and let producers spend less of their energy on lobbying.

Stop buying the farm. When will we wise up about farm subsidies? Farmers used to be heroes in this country--the rugged souls who turned the wild land into the fruited plain. Americans, as they get socked with taxes to pay for ever more pork, are taking note, and it doesn't do much to breed unity, or wealth, or anything else you'd actually want. This country deserves farmers who don't regard the dole as another crop. Were we using these funds to build--at emergency speed--a missile defense, while more farmers earned an honest living, wouldn't life feel a bit better?

Stop carrying on about the apocalypse of capitalism. We had a huge boom in a market full of new factors during an era in which President Clinton defined morals right down to the floor. Now reality is auditing the markets. There is much educational value to that, and if we manage to resist the urge to regulate ourselves into deeper problems, we will learn better how to cope, and life will, in fact, go on.

That's just a partial wish list, and maybe parts of it can be dismissed as wildly unrealistic. But America can do mighty things--including reform itself--once it sets its will to the task. Focusing on these matters would get us a lot further than worrying about the demise of capitalism, the end of the world, and whether or not we should call, in the process, on God.

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Wednesdays here and in The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Freedom's Checklist

Freedom's Checklist
Things to do tomorrow.
BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Wednesday, July 3, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT

There's an odd feel to this Independence Day, the first of the sobering era we now date from Sept. 11. The news is full of doomsday speculation. We've all been warned to be on alert; the atmosphere is fraught with the mood of that old joke about the classic Jewish telegram: "Start worrying. Details to follow." Though this is no jest. The threat is real.

Still, one gets the sense that despite all the cautions and alerts, we are not yet entirely serious. Like the ritual three questions we get asked at every airport, whatever they are, the point too often seems to be that worrying is what we are now mainly called on to do, and that that, in itself, is enough. Especially with so many things to worry about--and not just terrorists. There is deep distress over the dark side of corporate America, as we total up our shrinking pension funds and peer horrified into some capitalist netherworld in which a fallen Martha Stewart wanders, wailing, among the tormented spirits of Enron, WorldCom and Arthur Andersen.

There are vast forest fires, there is the continuing cult of global warming, and there is much furor over a San Francisco judge's decision worthy of "Gulliver's Travels"--that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. There are spats with our allies over steel, lumber, farm subsidies and Yasser Arafat. And there are the regular denunciations by celebrities who deem America no longer worthy of their presence, the latest on that list being Tom Cruise, who recently opined he'd do better to raise his kids someplace else.

Some of this we can tolerate. America is a grand and generous nation, built to absorb much nonsense and sustain many shocks. The republic will, I suspect, survive the departure of Mr. Cruise (if he actually leaves). And public outrage over the attempt to scrap the Pledge of Allegiance suggests that most ordinary Americans may be well ahead of certain elements of the judiciary and the media in their grasp of priorities. In what I think is a typical reaction, one patriot I know had been planning to order an ice cream cake for a July 4 family gathering, saying "Happy Birthday America." After the Pledge of Allegiance was ruled out, due to its phrase, "under God," he decided instead to order a cake decorated with "God Bless America."

Satisfying, in its way. But it will take more than icing to defend our nation. And while no one could reasonably expect an uninterrupted flow of sweet sense from Washington, there is a certain amount of nonsense going on that is frustrating to watch because it is genuinely dangerous. If we really want to honor this great nation, not by worrying but by actually taking measures that will matter, here are a few ways to start. Call it a wish list for America's 226th birthday.

Get our war priorities straight. We knocked out the Taliban and terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and that was a good first step. President Bush named the axis of evil, defined a policy to defeat it and recently declared a policy of pre-emptive action against our enemies. But for months now, we have been chewing up time, focused on Yasser Arafat and his promises and grievances and suicide bombers. Our real problems with terrorism lie elsewhere. When do we deal with Saddam Hussein? When do we stop subsidizing--thereby propping up--the "evil" North Korean regime? When do we pressure the Russians into stopping the "evil" Iranian regime from attaining nuclear weapons?

Clean up our act on trade. The Declaration of Independence, which we honor tomorrow, specifically chides King George III for "cutting off our Trade with All Parts of the World." These days, our own politicians seem intent on replicating that problem--as far as they can get away with it. At a moment when America needs the wealth and friendship of trade, this is downright unpatriotic. Where do our steel makers and lumber lobbyists, and the legislators who harbor them, get the idea that their narrow interests should rank above those of America itself? Imagine the gains if Washington were to concentrate thoroughly on its real job of defense, and let producers spend less of their energy on lobbying.

Stop buying the farm. When will we wise up about farm subsidies? Farmers used to be heroes in this country--the rugged souls who turned the wild land into the fruited plain. Americans, as they get socked with taxes to pay for ever more pork, are taking note, and it doesn't do much to breed unity, or wealth, or anything else you'd actually want. This country deserves farmers who don't regard the dole as another crop. Were we using these funds to build--at emergency speed--a missile defense, while more farmers earned an honest living, wouldn't life feel a bit better?

Stop carrying on about the apocalypse of capitalism. We had a huge boom in a market full of new factors during an era in which President Clinton defined morals right down to the floor. Now reality is auditing the markets. There is much educational value to that, and if we manage to resist the urge to regulate ourselves into deeper problems, we will learn better how to cope, and life will, in fact, go on.

That's just a partial wish list, and maybe parts of it can be dismissed as wildly unrealistic. But America can do mighty things--including reform itself--once it sets its will to the task. Focusing on these matters would get us a lot further than worrying about the demise of capitalism, the end of the world, and whether or not we should call, in the process, on God.

Ms. Rosett is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. Her column appears Wednesdays here and in The Wall Street Journal Europe.