First, I thank everyone who took the time to read what I wrote and also to everyone who took the time to post a reply.
Part one And it was in those replies that contained the seeds to understanding the entire purpose of the piece. Some had said that I should have mentioned a solution. That would have defeated my entire intention.
I didn't want to influence your solution with one of my own. I wanted to inspire discussion. I was hoping that many of you were open minded enough to recognize the situation and in response determine what the solution is. If you want to know what needs to be done to change, you need only look at your own reply.
From what I can see here, the solutions in the responses were as varied as the number of replies. Some refused to see a problem. Others, saw the problem and felt that the obstacles were insurmountable. And, of course, there were those who lost sight of the entire exercise.
The ones that really made me feel good were the ones who recognized the problems and decided that it was their duty to make a change.
DU is a place where activists gather with free will to make a change for the better in this world we live in. I'm glad that so many of us still remember why we joined in the first place.
Now, an explanation. I believe that this country has always dealt with two competing and mutually exclusive national imperatives:
One being our gradual procession from a small agrarian culture that was founded on the grand ideals of life, liberty and the of happiness. Yet, despite these declarations, initially had limited access to a small number of individuals, but throughout our history those ideals were expanded to give everyone equal standing. By example, we became a model for everyone else on this planet who strives to seek their own liberty. Even in this day and age, we haven't lost that potential.
But, none of this came to be without a struggle.
"…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Frederick Douglass, 1857
We are still in the midst of this struggle. It's easy for some to look at the present and say that this is about as good as it's going to get. But, how can someone look at our present situation and do this?
If you chose to fight and change, you chose correctly.
The second national imperative is our unfortunate penchant for imperialism. It's always been there, in the subtext and at times out in the open. It's something that has always threatened to rip apart every grand ideal that this nation was founded on. In the past, the nation manifested this struggle against this threat with a civil war, the Indian diaspora, Reconstruction, the Black Codes, Jim Crow, sufferage, the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments to our Constitution and Manifest Destiny. Imagine, what direction this country would be going in today, had the Confederacy had defeated the Republic and subsequently pursued it's stated aims of establishing a Confederate Empire in the rest of this hemisphere:
Please reviewIn our lifetimes, this struggle was seen in how we prosecuted the Cold War and fought against those who resisted our imperial aims. Why else would I post a list of dictators who have done our bidding? I also mentioned Anti-Americanism, which the imperialists do not see as a movement to threaten our lives and nation, but is nothing more than resistance to our imperialist aims. If Nation X decides to look after its own self interests and the welfare of it citizens instead to subjugating them to our political and economic whims, that is the essence of Anti-Americanism.
We're dealing with this penchant today and, though its being manifested in different ways like the Iraq War and our global corporate expansionism. Yes, the struggle still goes on.
Between these two competing imperatives stand those who chose to stand and fight. That's the way it's always been in America. The roll call of names of the men and women who fought and sometimes died in the street is long and hallowed. Those who fought for fair wages, the vote for women, civil rights, against unjust wars and the rights of immigrants have always been at the forefront of forcing America to live up to its ideals. They owned the problem instead of blaming others, and by owning it, they also owned the solution. Those who told us that things are fine just the way they are have always stood in the way of the pursuit of our self-actualization as a great nation of laws and liberty.
If the fight is given up, and change is abandoned the consequences for all of us are dire indeed.