IP: TheNation.com: Bill Moyers: Which America Will We Be Now?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "RV Head" <4whp () home com>
> To: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
>
>
> > http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011119&s=moyers
> >
> > He opens:
> >
> > ====
> >
> > For the past several years I've been taking every possible opportunity to
> > talk about the soul of democracy. "Something is deeply wrong with politics
> > today," I told anyone who would listen. And I wasn't referring to the
> > partisan mudslinging, the negative TV ads, the excessive polling or the
> > empty campaigns. I was talking about something fundamental, something
> > troubling at the core of politics. The soul of democracy--the essence of
> > the word itself--is government of, by and for the people. And the soul of
> > democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money
> > contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the
> faith
> > of citizens in self-government.
> >
> > But what's happened since the September 11 attacks would seem to put the
> > lie to my fears. Americans have rallied together in a way that I cannot
> > remember since World War II. This catastrophe has reminded us of a basic
> > truth at the heart of our democracy: No matter our wealth or status or
> > faith, we are all equal before the law, in the voting booth and when death
> > rains down from the sky.
> >
> > ====
> >
> > One paragraph from the middle of the two page article:
> >
> > ====
> >
> > Let's face it: These realities present citizens with no options but to
> > climb back in the ring. We are in what educators call "a teachable
> moment."
> > And we'll lose it if we roll over and shut up. What's at stake is
> > democracy. Democracy wasn't canceled on September 11, but democracy won't
> > survive if citizens turn into lemmings. Yes, the President is our
> Commander
> > in Chief, but we are not the President's minions. While firemen and police
> > were racing into the fires of hell in downtown New York, and now, while
> our
> > soldiers and airmen and Marines are putting their lives on the line in
> > Afghanistan, the Administration and its Congressional allies are allowing
> > multinational companies to make their most concerted effort in twenty
> years
> > to roll back clean-air measures, exploit public lands and stuff the
> pockets
> > of their executives and shareholders with undeserved cash. Against such
> > crass exploitation, unequaled since the Teapot Dome scandal, it is every
> > patriot's duty to join the loyal opposition. Even in war, politics is
> about
> > who gets what and who doesn't. If the mercenaries and the
> > politicians-for-rent in Washington try to exploit the emergency and
> > America's good faith to grab what they wouldn't get through open debate in
> > peacetime, the disloyalty will not be in our dissent but in our
> > subservience. The greatest sedition would be our silence. Yes, there's a
> > fight going on--against terrorists around the globe, but just as certainly
> > there's a fight going on here at home, to decide the kind of country this
> > will be during and after the war on terrorism.
> >
> > ====
> >
> --
> "So that's what Hell is: I'd never have believed it. Do you remember,
> brimstone, the stake, the gridiron? What a joke! No need of a gridiron,
> Hell is other people."  - Jean-Paul Sartre


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