Thursday, July 5, 2007

Apathetic About Independence

My family was traveling from dawn 'til way-past-dusk last night, so my Independence Day post is a day late.

Two quotes to spur us to activity:

"The trouble is that we have taken our democracy for granted; we have thought
and acted as if our forefathers had founded it once and for all. We have
forgotten that is has to be enacted anew in every generation." ~John Dewey
For all the ills in our government, political parties, society, and oval office, this is my country. The system may need fixing, but it is the system (or some semblence of it) that has been in place for 220+ years now.

The forefathers were not deistic beings who wound the watch of America and set it in perfect motion for all eternity. The ideas that they set forth must be re-enacted by us and by those who follow us. The system may be corrupt or even broken, but we must be the ones to make it work or do repair. The government of this country is not a product to be sold to us by Democrats or Republicans, presidents or governors--which is what it seems to have turned into sometimes. It is, "We, the people."
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.
It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment."
~Robert M. Hutchens

The less we care, the less we vote. The less we vote, the less we control direction. The less we control direction, the more those with power and money control us.

The biggest threat to America is not terrorism (sorry, Rudy, I know you are banking on that one). It's us. It's our apathy about our role in the decision-making process. It's our willingness to vote for American Idol, but not our representatives or our even our president.

I'm far from a political pundit, but ANY entity composed of members who do not care about it is bound to erode and eventually die.

Do you know who your representatives are? Your senators? Find out. Participate. Create change.

1 comment:

Derek said...

You're a good man, charlie brown.

It's funny, your reference to the Forefathers. Ironic, I guess, since they were mostly deists. But your point is well taken.

I'd say one of the crippling paradoxes we find ourselves in at the moment is we all want to change the "Big Government," so we're a less interested in the little government around us. We've got two governments to face up to: Our State's and our Nation's. It's like we're all working on the Nation's, thinking it'll improve the State's, when really I think it must be the other way around. Or at least I think the Forefathers saw it more in that light. But to get back to the other side of the looking glass is much more difficult when you've got a Jabberwocky breathing down your neck.

Rebecca came out of her hiding place and posted a wild and rambling comment on a recent post at my blog. Rambling though it is, it's got a damning clarity to it, and it speaks to this issue of apathy.

There's something definitely wrong about this name Rudy, too. It just doesn't look right in print. Is this how that little guy turned a great college football star for one game spelled his name? I can't remember.