The fifth day of deep snow. The initial festive atmosphere has turned

distinctly grouchy. I tried to get to work, but there were many hundreds

of people on the Metro platform and the trains—which passed through

about four times an hour—were so packed that no one was getting on.

I stayed for 45 minutes and then gave up. At home for the fifth straight

day, I was reduced to inventing a Napoleonic naval wargame with blocks

and tiddly-winks.

Another day of snowdrifts and no public transportation. Cabin fever is

beginning to affect us all, although we had some fun sledding. I could

have composed something for this page, but instead I devoted the part

of my brain that blogs to writing a contribution for the Deliberative

Democracy blog.

Today, President’s Day, was supposed to be the White House Forum on American

History, Civics, and Service. We were excited, because we had just launched

our report on The Civic

Mission of Schools; John Bridgeland had formally praised it on

behalf of the administration; and it was to be distributed at the Forum.

But with Washington buried under perhaps the biggest snowfall in its recorded

history, the Forum was cancelled. I am, however, delighted to link to

a Sunday article

by David Broder that not only endorses The Civic Mission of Schools;

it also deftly and accurately summarizes it. And today’s Washington

Post has a masthead

editorial endorsing the report. (Unfortunately, the Post was

hardly delivered to anyone today, since side streets were impassable.)

During a conference call of the we

were asked to say what we are doing to keep our spirits up during this

time of looming war. Most of my friends and colleagues reported practically

useful or spiritually worthy activities that they have embarked on recently

to bolster their spirits—ranging from playing music to rediscovering

grammar school friends to co-teaching a course with Noam Chomsky (literally). All

I could think of was our family decision this morning to follow the instructions

in the newspaper and buy plastic sheeting for an emergency shelter room.

(Unfortunately, all the sheeting is gone from local stores).

Although I probably should focus on the damage

that we may be about to do in the Middle East, my actual thoughts range

from fear for my family, to irritation at the way the Bush Administration

handles diplomacy, to equally profound irritation with the European

anti-War movement. Everyone’s instinct in a time of crisis is to use

it for pre-existing political ends, whether they want to bash American

culture or impose US power on the Middle East. Each group interprets everyone

else’s motives as narrowly selfish or self-indulgent. And all the parties

act so as to confirm the worst interpretations of their enemies.

I tried to talk one of Maryland’s Rhodes Scholarship applicants from

last year into reapplying, because he came within a whisker of winning.

Since he’s primarily a scientist, it’s not necessarily in his interest

to go to Oxford. But he’s also something of an activist for deaf culture,

and the Rhodes could open doors for him later if he wanted to continue

advocacy work.