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(Published at Common Dreams)
In my country there are no free speech zones. On this soil,
speech is not fenced and cannot be arbitrarily quarantined for
the convenience of those it may challenge or offend. The entire
nation is a free speech zone, and the more unpopular the speech,
the more fiercely it is defended. In my country the voices of
dissent are honored and encouraged because they offer the best
opportunity for popular opinion to mature and self-correct. Debate
is invited and demanding questions are welcomed, since only those
policies that withstand challenge and examination are ultimately
embraced.
My nation has wise and honorable leaders who are unafraid to
walk among their people. They engage in dialogue and do not fear
respectful protest knowing there is nothing to learn from unquestioned
agreement. Here, political audiences are not vetted and sworn
to loyalty before they may stand in the presence of power.
In my country, compassion is a verb, not an adjective. Action,
not rhetoric is compassion’s proof. Here, the weakest among us
are not left to the incertitude of market forces or the unreliable
promise of volunteers. We do not subject those with modest means
to what we ourselves would not wish: that our welfare depend solely
on erratic economic cycles or the availability of benevolent strangers.
In my country, we know that the market has no conscience and
is not the final arbiter of human values. We understand that the
function of regulation is to provide an ethical framework for
the market, not to restrain investment, but to dissuade misrepresentation
and theft.
In my country, "government" is not a dirty word. My government
takes its constitutional responsibility to "Promote the General
Welfare" seriously. Its priorities come from these inspired words
which are both a measure and a standard for the choices we make.
My country understands that attention to the common good is what
makes civil society possible and just.
Truth is valued here and journalists are the keepers of the truth
and are not for sale. They are the firewall which stands ready
to challenge the secrets and lies of misused power and alert the
citizenry. Propaganda is not tolerated in my country. It is something
practiced in faraway places by fearful people lacking the wisdom
and goodness to lead honorably. My government respects the grantors
of its power–the people–and sees no need to lie, deceive, and
misrepresent its policies and intentions. It does not fear transparency.
In my country, back rooms are for storage, not the making of policy.
My country is not ideologically intransigent, but recognizes
that everyone holds a piece of the truth. It heeds history’s lesson
that those who wish to impose their beliefs on others are building
the on-ramp to tyranny.
My country values its sacred honor and therefore honors its agreements
and treaty obligations.
My government doesn’t spy on its citizens without cause and legal
sanction.
My country is not populated by torturers, nor does it imprison
people without charges or access to legal representation. The
Bill of Rights is our state religion and there is nothing any
group or nation can do to us that would cause us to abandon it.
My country does not wage war without provocation. If it must
go to war it does so only with the greatest regret and reluctance
borne of exhausting all of its considerable intellectual and moral
resources in the attempt to resolve its differences peacefully.
In my country, violence is the refuge of the unresourceful.
In the rare instance our soldiers are asked to fight and die,
their families need not wonder whether they died for the good
of the nation or for the whim of the government. Our causes are
just, and other nations join us from conviction, not because they
were bribed or bullied to take up our standard.
My country respects and lives in harmony with the environment.
It knows that our well being, our economy, and ultimately our
survival depend on functioning natural systems. My nation understands
that the health of the external environment is a reflection of
the health of our people and the appropriateness of our priorities.
When nature tells us that our people are ailing and our priorities
are misplaced, my nation is courageous enough to make necessary
corrections.
In my country, policy and political favor are not purchasable.
Corporations are not automatically granted eternal life and wholesale
immunity. They are chartered by the people to provide specific
products and services; they do not govern by paid proxy.
My country respects all religions and supports none. It understands
that faith is, by definition, unproven and unprovable and therefore
provides a poor foundation for secular governance. Ethical behavior
is not a byproduct of religious belief, but a moment-by-moment
choice available to everyone of all beliefs.
The cynics will say that the country I describe never existed.
Perhaps. But I know with every cell and fiber in my being that
it can exist because it dwells in my heart and in the hearts of
millions like me. It seems as if I turned my back just for a moment,
and in that moment of inattention my country has lost its way.
It cries out now for the full and unrelenting dedication of those
who still remember and value its promise.
I must look to myself first. If I have failed my country, I resolve
to speak more clearly and act more assertively in defense of a
nation I no longer see but I know exists. I will not forsake it
to be defiled one outrage at a time. Silence is complicity, and
I can be silent no more.
"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight
that we all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight
-- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." -- Justice
William O. Douglas
In my country, darkness never has–and will not now–withstand
the coming light.
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