2 posts tagged “civic virtue”
Yet at the same time, I look at that photograph and feel that there is a certain naivete amongst those who protest with signs on the streets, and clamor to get out the vote. Neither major party offers a viable solution to the problems facing the nation, and the multitude of constitutional faux pas enacted by the Bush Regime. And with 2.8 billion dollars being spent on this year's midterm election by both parties, it would be lunacy to imagine that the same old politics of reciprocity will not take play once everyone is safely in office. Add flawed electronic voting machines without paper backups, the threat of the still-registered dead rising from the grave to vote, and the politics of fear and ultimately what this nation has is less of a true, democratic election and more of step forward towards the edge of that Orwellian abyss.
I look at that photograph and part of me wants to join them, to rise in civil disobedience against the government and ameliorate the problems of our government. But my first bright-eyed election was in 2000, and I have had none since. I know, when I go cast my ballot tomorrow, I am only choosing a lesser evil, not a true solution, nor a truly democratic representative of my, or my fellow voters' interests.
Part of me is furious at having such poor choices, at having politicians who look out more for those who will fund their next campaigns than the actual voters who put them into office. Part of me wants to take this Tuesday and paint the streets red and fowl with all the lobbyists, executives and self-serving hypocrites that populate and manipulate our government to do almost everything but what is good for the people of the country. I want to wear red and yellow and wave a banner high in the air and scream that this is for the people, that every country has growing pains and it is our mandate, as the people, to force a restoration in true Jeffersonian fashion.
But that part of me will never be appeased. No call to arms will ever be answered in this country. Not enough people seem to truly care. Sometimes, though, I wonder if anyone feels the same way--if they would pick up the banner too, and fight in the streets for the idea of America, not what America has come to be....
I will cast my ballot tomorrow, but my hands and heart will be left wanting.
I'm the black sheep of the office when it comes to politics and my own personal beliefs. The company I work for is a bastion of conservativism. At our company-wide meetings it isn't uncommon for representives of the Republican National Committee to make a presentation and ask for contributions, nor is it uncommon for the owner of the company to lead off company meetings with prayer. I always stick out at either event by leaving the room, or ignoring the prayer completely. Needless to say, this sometimes causes a bit of tension between myself and some of my coworkers.
Usually an uneasy detente exists between us. Politics and religion stop at the door to my office as a rule, and I rarely enter into political discussions at the watercooler or breakroom simply because they stop the moment I walk in. Today, however, that was not the case.
As I headed to the back to grab some coffee (which I don't even know why I drink here--it's Maxwell House, and truly awful) I couldn't help but overhear the discussion was about Lebanon and the current cease-fire. I figured as much would be the conversation de jour, but not that it would have the overtly racist tone it did. Most people involved in the discussion were of the opinion that Israel shouldn't have stopped their offensive until all 'those terrorists are dead and left to rot.' Then came the firestorm. I asked them a very simple question: Which? The Israelis or Hezbollah?
To make a long story sort, the conversation turn to some common themes: they [muslims] hate freedom; arab countries are uncivilized; there won't be peace as long as they exist; and the whole slew of typical stereotypes about Arabs.
I asked them if they really knew what freedom and liberty were and they looked at me in a quizzical manner. How dare I ask them if they knew. Of course they knew. Freedom was being free, it was America, what we fought for, how we lived, etc etc...
The more I think about it, the more it came together in my mind. The definition they gave me, the things they thought encompassed freedom and liberty in a democratic government were all grade school notions. Almost every American will invariably learn about the freedoms and liberties of America, and how great they are. What they don't understand is that freedom and liberty, as applied to government, are not what they seem to be. No one is truly free in the United States, nor does everyone have true liberty. Liberty and freedom are surrendered at the formation of any government. That is the basis of all government (along with private property, if you choose to accept Locke). Of course, we all have assured rights under the contracts we have forged with our government, but nontheless, few people in this nation are aware of such.
They take freedom and liberty to mean something wholly different, to mean something tangible which can be attacked and taken away by an exterior force. They don't understand it doesn't exist in the first place, and that the only thing that can take away the rights we as a people have in our contract with the government is the government itself (and subsequently ourselves), not Islamic terrorists.
More frightening is that people would argue for the destruction of a race to perserve something they never had in the first place. If anything, it illustrates the lethality of stereotyping. To assume the Arab nations in the Middle East seek to take away our 'freedom', or that they are 'uncivilized' is simply wrong. It places our rights, as human beings, above the rights of others, and that can only result in more of this cycle of violence and hate.
I seriously doubt it will ever happen, but I would like to see students introduced to the writings of Thomas Paine, John Locke, Alexander Hamiliton, John Jay, James Madison and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Students in high school government classes are taught about those people and what they wrote, but seldom are they required to read what they wrote, opening a comprehensive understanding of the foundations of our government and constitution to them in a way that no summary can. Perhaps if students understood that their right to vote is not in itself freedom, but a referendum on which rights they wish to reinforce and which they wish to relinquish they would vote more often. Liberty and Freedom are not granted de facto with the right to vote, but in the exercise of the right to vote, just as tyranny all too often occurs because two few people realize it is not enough to have a right--that right must be exercised.
There are better ways of learning civic virtue than reading the primary texts that helped form this nation. Those lessons come with a loss of rights and fear and tyranny, and once learned cost far more than any trip to the ballot box to rectify.
This is my rather long-winded way of saying use it or lose it--sadly, I think we lose a little bit more of it with every soundbite from the White House
