What Really Needs to be Said About our Last Lamented Election
By Donella Meadows
–February 1, 2001–
Like you, I have been drowning in the gush of reaction to our recent election (or selection) — an election that will never quite be over, that will continue to prick like a thorn, that was clearly never intended, as our new president is already demonstrating, to unite instead of divide us.
I have heard no one, [...]
The Senator, the President, and the Sea Lion
by Donella Meadows
— December 21, 2000 —
The drama of the presidential election, they say, has awakened the interest of the public, and especially of young people, in the democratic process.
So welcome, young people, to the entertainment that never ends. Once the question “who won?” is settled, other questions begin. What are the people who won up to? For whose benefit? [...]
The 2000 Election in the Cool Light of History
by Donella Meadows
— December 7, 2000 —
The crowds demonstrating outside Florida courtrooms and counting rooms have been reminding me of the historical opera “Boris Godounov.” It opens with peasants milling about, waiting to find out who will be their next tsar. Every now and then a handler comes out and whips them up to yell for Boris, who is not [...]
The Power of a Vote
by Donella Meadows
— November 16, 2000 —
What is it we are learning in the aftermath of this crazy election? How powerful a single vote can be?
Or how worthless a single vote can be, when 19,000 of them can be tossed out in one county? When boxes of ballots get lost? When recounts are demanded or stopped depending on their expected [...]
Watching the Primary from Across the River
By Donella Meadows
–February 3, 2000–
I’ve had the fun of voting in six New Hampshire primaries, but this one I had to sit out. I’ve just moved three miles across the river and become a Vermonter.
It was strange to watch all the foofuraw from across the state boundary. I still bumped into the candidates as they cruised the valley, canoed on [...]
