Victory Parades

Those people who are critical of the so-called hoopla surrounding the return of the military from the Gulf are overlooking an important factor in this equation. For the first time in a very long time, the silent majority in this country became a force in directing the outcome of a controversial political action.

For too long, a very well-organized, vocal minority has been allowed to chart and control the course over which this country travels. This time it was different.

We did go to the streets in the beginning, but not in the numbers of the so-called peace activists. Their course would have been to make this another Vietnam. So instead we stayed at home and put out our flags, tied our yellow ribbons and most important, we wrote letters--thousands of them, supporting our troops. It soon became a groundswell for people who had at last found a way to show how they felt about an important issue.

Is it any wonder that this feeling has continued? Particularly, with the outcome of the war and the jubilation felt for our returning heroes. Perhaps this is the onset of a new form of activism. Those of us who have always felt the ballot box was where these decisions should be made found a new weapon. Perhaps it will never again be so easy for a vocal minority to set the agenda for a silent majority to follow.

VIRGINIA GORDON, Claremont