Sunday, November 11, 2007 – On Veterans Day six years ago the remains of the World Trade Center were still smoking, and the war in Afghanistan had just begun. No one, outside the Bush administration, was thinking that much about Iraq. The idea of attacking Iran would have seemed even crazier than it does now.

Lower Manhattan is more orderly today. Afghanistan is more of a wreck. Iraq makes Afghanistan look placid. And people who think attacking Iran would be crazy have only to look back a few years to realize that for some people, crazy is no obstacle.

On Veterans Day six years ago, veterans demonstrated for peace in Portsmouth. In those days, you couldn’t get away from people talking about “supporting the troops.” Whatever that means.

No one was listening to these protesting troops—no one in power, anyway. Lately it’s become obvious they haven’t been supporting the troops, either.

It all seems a bit odd, what with this being the land of the brave and the home of the free and all that good stuff. You might think we could do better than this. It’s as if we had some kind of wiring problem. You push the button for peace and quiet, and an air horn goes off in your ear.

Anyone who’s paying any attention has at least a couple of good guesses as to what’s really wrong here. The Republicans say it’s the Democrats. The Democrats says it’s the Republicans. Democrats being Democrats, of course half of them say it’s the Democrats, too.

Most people agree that the money in politics is a big part of the problem. Everybody except lobbyists and plutocrats. And especially the plutocrats that own the big media. Most of the big money in politics ends up in their pockets in the end. That’s why campaigns cost so damned much.

From a practical point of view, it’s pretty clear that the citizenry is at a real disadvantage, going head to head against the corporations, and the plutocrats that own them, and the politicians that do their dirty work.

As far as we can see, the only weak spot left in the system is cheap media. And we’re not talking about the Internet here, indispensible as that is.

We’re talking about a free press, much like back in Daniel Fowle’s day. Small papers. Free papers. The tools to make them are laying around like so many old hubcaps. A handful of people, a few hundred pounds of newspaper, some effort and persistence, and you’ve carved out some space that isn’t under the thumb of a corrupt system.

It may not be much, but it’s a start.