Tag Archives: Democracy

Poems

The Contest

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The Contest

Sports beautifully have winners and losers
Complete with joy of winning and sorrow of loss
Borne by the efforts and passions of competitors
Living within the bounds and rules of the game
We who play, those who coach, and spectate 
All know that there is no perpetual winner 
And we root for the underdog to perform
As if to rise, as Phoenix from ashes of defeat
We cheer performance, but are moved by feats
Of sportsmanship, that show the humanity
Of this game of life, and camaraderie of contestants
And we boo the ones who cheat us of this experience,
We despise and ban the ones that bring hate 
And violence that represents the worst of us
Because we don’t want to see, this worst of us in us.
Sports shaped our psyche as Nation 
It is how we first defeated the notion of Nazi 
Superiority, and replaced it with American
Determination in 1936, giving us a lesson 
In resolve, in how to win…. we love these stories.
We love who we were then and can be today.
We carry that notion of fairness into our contests
Of a political nature, and we know ideas matter
We know discourse is necessary, we cannot be 
Divided, though they may try.
We can not be cheated of fairness
We are all playing in a game with rules we agreed
So very many years ago.
We are protecting the democratic principles
We are supporting each other because we
Know that we need each other. 
Without players there is no grand contest,
Without compassion there is no democracy.
We must seek understanding and empathy
As we are part of the greatest sport ever. 

When it is over, let us congratulate and shake each others hands!

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Slippery Slope…

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We have taken another step on the slippery slope in the journey from democracy to authoritarian rule.   We have seen the discredit of the free press, we have seen the efforts to shape the courts, we have seen and continue to experience the conspiracy theories borne out in the individual personality wrapped in paranoia that is beating back a supposed deep-state.  Furthermore, data and science and truth is lost to political context, everything is seen in the context of for or against.  Division is the state of the dis-union.  Now the next step, secret police.  Secret federal police, part of political theater.  In the context of “law and order”… neither is being achieved.  The law is broken, without accountability.  This is not policing, this is provocative theater, creating fear and division.   How can there be accountability when there are no name tags on paramilitary being deployed in the streets, completely unwelcome by the leaders of a community?  What do arrests mean, when there is no “lawful” authority established?   How can tear gassing mothers aligned to encourage peaceful protest and discourage violence be justified as a deescalation?  It is quite the opposite.   What about the video of a Navy Veteran being beaten and pepper sprayed because he asked to talk to the “secret police”, is this what we think democracy looks like?  Is this what we believe the right to assemble, and the right to free speech means?  And then who are these men in fatigues, with weapons and helmets that are part of this slide to authoritarian rule?

But let’s not mince words, because when combined with tolerance for neo-Nazi white-supremacist, it is clear that this slippery slope is really a backward slide toward fascism.

Beware the next steps: the intentional limitations on voting, the ratcheting of fear mongering, and then the final invalidation of democratic election results.
Wake-up America!

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Silent Majority …

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What if the silent majority of this country, is not moved by divisive politics, what if the silent majority believes in the ideals of this country, and that All Men Are Created Equal, means that black lives matter too… and that we have been guilty of riding on the shoulders, and labors and suffering of those less fortunate, and what if that silent majority is really about advancing  humanity to a higher purpose and broad inclusion of what it means to be a member of society.  What if silent majority means being Christian in the sense of following Christ’s teachings and loving one another instead of hate and prejudice and abhorrent lack of empathy?  What if being of a silent majority means that we respect and honor those that worship and believe different than we do?  What if the silent majority says that it matters not who you love,  how you love, only that you do not hate.  What if the silent majority is in the streets demonstrating for justice?  What if they are in their homes, rooting for someone to help articulate that we want to be prosperous but not by pushing others down to lift ourselves up, but rather lifting all of us through education, through opportunity, through understanding and empathy.  What if we are no longer silent?

 

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We The People

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Two weeks ago, I wrote Beware the Ides of March.  In that blog I point out that by mid-March (the Ides) we may be at a pivotal point, where we find out if we can rise to the challenge of a global crisis or we fail because we cannot believe and accept that continued growth and prosperity could be vulnerable.   So far as this time approaches, I’m very encouraged, not so much by our Federal leadership, but by the actions of State and Local governments, the sports and entertainment industry, the education, religious and healthcare institutions.  So many making smart decisions about reducing large crowds, encouraging safety, and preparing for a surge of patients that will challenge our healthcare systems.  The social distancing and containment actions of society will help flatten the curve of patients needing critical care, thus avoiding overwhelming our healthcare capacity.  It is remarkable that this understanding, and these actions are happening as rapidly as they are prior to emergency declaration, and while it will do great good.  The Federal government is almost being dragged along in this crisis instead of leading it.   We are a society that still believes and operates with democratic principles of it is We The People that will govern, and ensure our elected leaders come into alignment.  The release of emergency funding, and the actions to soften the financial blow to millions that will be out of work, as well as millions that have no healthcare insurance, are in all our best interest and We The People understand.   Sure, many will complain about overreaction, about March Madness being cancelled and a host of other inconveniences, but I see our society showing that it can pivot rapidly to meet a global, crises.   And yes, there will be some that hoard what others need, but when the time comes I think most of them will share what they have.   I believe in the collective good and wisdom of people, and we will learn from this as we have with every global challenge, that We The People are resilient!

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Thomas Mann… on democracy

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A work called “The Coming Victory for Democracy” by Thomas Mann was written in 1938.  I’ve found it fascinating.  Some excerpts that seemed very applicable to our times and our challenges are captured here.  Mann’s premise at the time was that for democracy to win over the coming conflict with fascism, it would require democratic peoples to understand, know and properly reflect on the higher values of democratic principles.  I believe we need to re-examine our commitment to democracy and remember always that its future survival is not guaranteed.

Thomas Mann… (parenthetical material is my editorial comment)

Democracy is friendly to intellectual thought, to arts, to literature (and free press).  Distinguishing itself from dictatorship, which because of its belief in force is thereby obliged to be remote, foreign, and hostile to intellectual pursuits. But this assertion only acquires real value as a definition of democracy if the concept of intellectual life is not understood as one-sided, isolated, abstract, superior to life and remote from it, but is characterized as closely related to life, as directed toward life and action — for only that and specifically that is the democratic spirit.  That is the spirit of democracy. “Democracy is not intellectual in an old and outworn sense. Democracy is thought; but it is thought related to life and action.

… In a democracy which does not respect the intellectual life and is not guided by it, demagogy has free play, and the level of national life is depressed to that of the ignorant and uncultivated.  But this cannot happen if the principle of education is allowed to dominate and the tendencies prevail to raise the lower classes (here, in our times we’d refer to the social-economic challenged)  to an appreciation of culture and to accept the leadership of the better elements.

… They consider fascism a protective bulwark which will save them from the real, the Russian, proletarian bolshevism and from socialism in general (today, we need to avoid thinking of authoritarianism as a false choice against progressive policies)

… Now, as life is constituted, truth depends to some extent on the man who speaks it.  From certain sources even the truth becomes a lie.  There is no doubt, among the variations and the emotionally intelligible modifications of the idea — truth, freedom, justice– it is what we call justice that is closest to the conscience and the heart of humanity today.

https://ia601601.us.archive.org/4/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.221831/2015.221831.The-Coming.pdf