Dear America,
The land of the free and a bastion of hope for over two hundred and fifty years. Not a perfect union but a perfect representation of the hope for a perfect union. Leader of modern democracy, knight to the rescue in two world wars and the perennial ‘greatest nation on earth’.
You, and the world, are at a crossroads.
Democracy is a comparative infant in the human race’s quest for a world that at its best could be a free, equal and plentiful planet for all to dwell in peace on. The reality is different but the quest should always continue. America has been the model that many countries have wanted to follow and base themselves on because of the quest, the pursuit of the dream and the belief in better.
Democracy allows everyone to dwell within one ‘tent’.
To express views, discuss and debate a new reality and allow everyone a say in how that reality should be formed. It is good to have reasoned differences to achieve a common goal. But are you losing sight of the common goal?
Democracy is under siege worldwide, it feels. The very traits that make Democracy an honourable and noble quest are being used to hack at its foundations. Freedom of speech is being used to dishonour and de-humanise pockets of the human race that another pocket may not like. Open markets and movement of peoples are being used to suppress so-called minorities because the so-called majority feels threatened. The ebb and flow of democratic economies is being used to blame certain groups for the decline of manufacturing or the reason why you or your family are struggling.
Modern history has shown us that if we allow this pattern to take hold again, another destructive wave of human life and values is on the cards. Modern democracy is in trouble. There are big flaws – loopholes, if you like, which have allowed people in power to be tainted or corrupted as power always has throughout human existence. But, the beauty of democracy is that it can self-correct, it can heal itself through the power of the people and the democratic process.
Hold your elected officials to account, challenge the methods they use to get elected and how laws are brokered. Shout loud that you want the leaders of your country to rise above the din and show real leadership. Tell them to admit the mistakes of the past and then find the integrity within yourself to forgive them, wipe the slate clean and work on building a better future again.
Please don’t heed the inner primeval voice which says anarchy or autocracy is better. That because the soundbite is easy to understand or repeat; that is necessarily then the best way to go.
Modern democracy is complex – deliberately so, to allow all of us a role in solving the challenges that face us. The amazing human spirit which has brought us so much speed, technology and wonder can also temper the aspects of those developments which engender laziness, complacency and even hate.
Cut through the noise. Listen to what each of your presidential candidates has to offer in terms of pursuing the dream of that elusive, perfect union. Which one brings you closer to that ideal and in trying to achieve it betters your life and consequently the world? Will divisiveness and the stripping away of human dignity bring you closer? Will entrusting world (not just American) democracy to an unpredictable and selfish president bring you closer?
It is frightening to think that in Europe and now America, democracy is being allowed to be diseased by the fear mongering and manipulation that almost destroyed both of those great continents only seventy years ago. Are we that naïve, that lazy, that complacent that we will allow it to seep in again?
I have faith in the human spirit, in the American spirit that you can rise above the stench that has been created during this election campaign and make a choice that gives the world and democracy continued hope.
If there is a silent majority out there in America and the world, it’s time to speak up.
