Happy 4th, I Think

My mid-MIchigan town is fortunate to still have a local paper published most days of the week. One of the great services provided, an American liberty and tradition to the core, is the paper's commitment to publish letters to the editor.  Though not always elegant they almost always give the reader a very direct look into the lives of our residents.

This past Wednesday the Argus-Press  ran a letter from a man that I found terribly disturbing and extremely noteworthy.  As we celebrate the 235th anniversary of the birth of this country Monday, we do so for good reason: In spite of any comments to the contrary, we live in a nation where one can publically attack the policies of our government and its leaders without fear of arrest or threat to self or family.  We live in a country where we can organize votes and corral opinions to initiate change.  We still live in a country where the press is unfettered, even if sometimes not without bias. We still live in a country where we are free to come and go from region to region, to worship as we believe, to say what we will.  Our liberties are, indeed, generous compared to so many other regions in the world today.

What we should all find troubling in that letter of June 29th is the tone of frustration with, and contempt for, our present political system.  This may be one of the greatest threats to our democracy: I fear many Americans are losing faith in the present system itself. We have a growing population of unemployed and under-employed while we shrink our investments in education, social security and social services in the name of fiscal responsibility.  At the same time we are putting in place programs and policies to encourage the growth and success of private business. After 235 years the United States of America is growing a population which does not hold this system in esteem because the system is failing them in their needs, i.e., failing to fulfill the functions they believe a government is obligated to meet. In short, we have a rapidly growing population left feeling marginalized. "We the people," ain't them.

From the perspective of this growing population, the current state of affairs can easily be perceived as abandonment of those in need as well as the middle class, the hallmark of democracy, in favor of promoting those in the upper income brackets. A failure on our part to recognize this trend could be catastrophic to the form and substance of American democracy we celebrate and claim to hold so dear. Since the time of the Civil War I do not believe the leadership of this country has been in a position which requires the depth of historical insight, awareness of contemporary issues, and social foresight that are required at this juncture in our nation’s history.

Every leader claims to recognize the difficult decisions he or she has had to make as budgets are tackled on national, state, and local levels.  One only hopes our leaders have an inkling of just how significant the consequences of their decisions may be in the years that lie ahead.  In his letter of the 29th, the young writer appears to have a rather angry and disheartened view of what lies ahead.  From the year 1770 comes the cautionary verse, “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey. Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.” Oliver Goldsmith, 1770, with thanks to the late Tony Judt.

                                              A patriotic evening sky, 7/3/2011