The War

I finally just finished watching Ken Burns' excellent documentary about World War II - "The War."

If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

"The War" exhibits the incredible attention to detail and quality that all of Ken Burns' stuff does (remember the Civil War documentary that came out a while ago that used Sam Waterson's voice with interviews of Shelby Foote? The was Ken Burns).

What really struck me about "The War" was the extent to which the US government under FDR was able to motivate and inspire the population through sacrifice and massive hardship and loss of life - for 4 long years.

During World War II the American government sent all the right signals to the people and provided the leadership that allowed our nation to marshal its great strength against tyranny.

It occurs to me that immediately after 9/11 - there was an opportunity to marshal that strength again against our current challenges. But that opportunity was wasted when the government asked people to "go shopping" and though people wanted to sacrifice and do something in the wake of those terrible attacks - the government pointed those eager to help to the malls.

As "The War" shows, government has the power to do better.