I found a penny this morning.

Last night I worked until after one o'clock and went home, slept for three hours, then went back to work by five. I finished up almost everything except for one co-worker who might have been the cause of my woes yesterday. I fixed her issue and was finished around nine. Time to sleep, right?

So I walk out and realize that this is the first day the World War II Memorial opens. It opens at 9:30 so I start walking over there, and midway to my destination, find a patina penny, half-green and crusty in the ground of the mall. As I approach the memorial, a large fence still encircles it, but I arrive at 9:25, just as they open the main gate to allow a stream of preteens into the solemn arena.

The side I walked in on showed the District of Columbia prominently, so I was happy about that. The varied quotes worked well, although none were as inspirational as those on either of the two Roosevelt memorials. And then, standing there about to leave, I looked at the wall of stars and remembered the penny in my pocket. I tossed it in, the first of many, to no fanfare. Afterward I snapped a picture of it, but realized no one other than I would care about being first.

On the way back I had a sudden thought about the ongoing war in Iraq. For a minute, I realized that this administration could very well pull out and claim "victory" months before the election. Sure, a civil war would follow but why would the people in the administration care? And since we've alienated all of our allies, not even the U.N. would be willing to go back in. It's almost too perfectly awful, which means it's probably going to happen.

Looking at those battles etched in stone, at the laudatory praise given to America's women workers, I think the single greatest flaw of 43 was his inability to challenge America to do more. Instead of being asked to sacrifice, we were asked to shop. Instead of encouraging people to volunteer for government service, he encouraged people to disparage the government. Instead of trying to get each citizen to contribute a little more, Bush pushed through a tax cut. Instead of honoring our veterans, his name now rests on a policy of pre-emption. It is important for all Americans to realize that one man cannot undo the good will of an entire nation, but he can pervert it. The sooner we get the reins of power back and use them for good, the better.

The war over ideas, of freedom versus tyranny, of open government against facism, of rights over a faceless state, continues today. We may use different weapons, but each blow landed today for the truths America was founded on reverberates through the ages. By continuing to fight for liberal democracy, we are picking up where those world warriors left off: spreading peace and knowledge throughout the land. We will never give up.