2004-11-04 - 5:16 p.m.

Jim Shepard is the author of "Project X" and "Love and Hydrogen."
There are really only two options for this country, from here on in: Either things are going to get much, much worse before they get better, or they're going to get much, much worse and stay that way. Fear and ignorance are a close to unbeatable combination. And each is only going to intensify. What we (and the rest of the world) are in for now is going to be something to behold. So. Maybe the best thing we can do is what we normally do, as writers: continue to work to understand how the world operates, and continue to try to communicate that understanding. The radical right is going to attempt to consolidate its stranglehold on political power. One of the crucial things writers can do, in the face of that, is to work to maintain -- and it's going to be an uphill struggle -- a free press

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