Let America be America again
It is raining in Austin, and it has been for three days. It has been a wet spring, but this is ridiculous for sunny Austin. My tomatoes have gotten so much water this spring that their cages are falling over, brought down by the abundance of new tomatoes.
I see in my overturned tomato cages a parable of nations. A flood of wealth and power is dangerous if it washes at the roots of integrity and democracy. The past century may be described in years to come as the century in which democratic principles were in constant conflict with the stresses of global war and temptations of economic expansion. I speak not just of America now, but also of Venezuela, of Congo, of China, of Egypt, of Saudi Arabia. All of these countries have been greatly influenced by poverty and sudden influxes of wealth, by war and reactions against war. None of these countries, excepting only America, currently has a free and democratic government. And some fear, perhaps rightly, that the U.S. is slipping on a treacherous slope. Is Lady Liberty winning the war against dictators, the war against economic hegemony and the poverty of the masses, the war against war itself?
The largest country in the world is a dictatorship, the (let's call it like it is) Empire of China. The second largest is a democracy. The U.S., most of Europe, most of Latin America, the southern tip of Africa, and most of the Pacific Rim is free, with the notable exception of China and notable inclusion of India. After two centuries of constant struggle for freedom, this is a respectable accomplishment on the part of the people of the world, a shining light for others to follow. Across the rest of Asia and most of Africa, there are shadows and darkness. Oligarchs run Russia and the CIS countries, Indonesia is a Javan hegemony supported by American military assistance, and the Arab world is full of dictators and zealot oligarchs. Africa is wracked by instability, war, disease, and poverty, and the world watches with, for the most part, indifference.
Why is the world made like this, you might ask? The easiest answer is that the rich countries wanted it to be this way; they chose the distribution of freedom in the world. They supported dictators in little-noticed countries for economic and political gain, to fight the cause of the moment or exploit their resources quickly. They, the rich and free countries of the world, supplied money, arms, and even soldiers to the cause of oppression and proxy war.
Democracy is just an empty word at home if it is not practiced everywhere. Democracy in the rich, free countries of the world is under constant assault, not just by our enemies abroad, but by our actions abroad.
Take America, the posterchild of Freedom. Every child killed in a foreign country in the 20th century by American troops, every democratically-elected official brought down by CIA action, every gun we sold to dictators that was used to quell bloody rebellions, every nation we invaded to protect our economic and political interest, every country we have troops in to keep the Pax Americana, these all are a blight on the face of Lady Liberty, and a blow to the cause of Democracy. Only honesty, not blatant hypocrisy, will safeguard a republic of free people. The U.S. would be more democratic, freer, and safer, if the entire world were more democratic, freer, and safer.
A more democratic, free, and safe U.S. would not necessarily be richer or more powerful...on the contrary, it would likely be poorer (but still rich) and less powerful. But what is the point of endless riches if others starve in Africa because of it? What is the point of power if your people must fear destruction in their beds at night? The sweet taste of wealth and power has led our nation on a century-long (and still counting), never-ending chase after political and economic domination of the world. And this chase has had clearly negative results.
Since the 1950s the democratic process that is at the heart of our country has been steadily eroded by economic forces and political corruption. In that time, the U.S. has grown more equal, but not more free, more democratic. Our foreign policy has increasingly been dictated by our military and economic interests, and our domestic policy has largely been one of neglect and lassez-faire growth. For the last two decades, less than half of the registered voters actually voted; meaning that no President of the government of the People, by the People, and for the People has been elected by a majority of the People. Our public servants, pressed by the need to get re-elected, care only about raising funds to pay for television advertisements that should be free. Our money-driven politics is paralyzed by partisan bickering.
The gap between the rich and poor is larger than it has ever been in the history of our country. The manufacturing industry, once a vital middle-class force and a generator of American capital, is in ruins. Soil erosion is at an all-time high, and decades of subsidies has concentrated farming, once the American occupation, into the hands of a few heavy-handed megaconglomerates. Only 3% of Americans farm anymore, and agricultural land and wildland is rapidly being swallowed by suburban development. Our land, our beautiful land of purple mountains and amber grain, is becoming increasingly polluted by mercury, altered by global warming and invasive species, over-grazed, strip-mined, clear-cut, and fragmented by poorly managed growth of cities. We are falling behind in the race to create sustainable technologies, we are exporting our scientists to other countries, and science and engineering, the American birthright, is no longer a favored profession for our young workforce. Our cities and countryside are crushed by poverty that resists upswings in the economy, our youth are inured to violence and hypocrisy, and we live under constant threat of terrorist reprisals for our oppressive, interventionist foreign policy.
To all of this I say, as Langston Hughes so eloquently said: Let America be America again. Let us be the steadfast, honest voice in the world for liberty, democracy, and human rights in the world. Let our allies be only the free and the honest, and let our money follow our principles, not the reverse. Let us own up to the hypocrisy in our past, and embrace the new promise of our future. Let us be the America that never was, and will be.
Let America be America again. Let us be a land of middle-class employment, of responsible corporations and people-sized businesses, of organic farms and small-town factories. We want to respect our leaders again, and help our elected officials avoid having to sell their principles for the chance to be heard. Let us free the poor from worrying about sick children, about homelessness, about starvation, and let them worry about finding a good job.
Let America be America again. Let the parks show us beauty, not destruction, let the forests and farms be fruitful forever, not just once, let our air be clean, our waters pure, and the quilt of our landscape, unique and unfragmented. Seize back our birthright of science and engineering, and put it to work on making the world's economy sustainable and pollution-free. In a world with a growing population and diminishing water and unrenewable energy resources, the biggest growth industry of this century will be providing clean water, renewable energy, and energy-efficient appliances and vehicles. Let us be the leader in the technologies of the future, not a follower.
Let America be America again. We want to live, free of fear of attack by foreign terrorists, secure in the knowledge that our troops are not exposed to danger in foreign countries, and confident that our political leaders are not eroding our freedoms. Let us all create the America that never was, but will be, one day, I know it.
Because as America goes, so goes the war for liberty and democracy. The United States of America is the greatest democratic light of the world, and without her we doom humankind to a dark future of beleaguered freedoms, oligarchs, and warlords. The wealth and power of this country is a by-product of the integrity and democracy that originally built it. Let us prevent that wealth and power from being the ruin of this Republic, and let us restore this old house together. She's beautiful, and she will be beautiful again. Let us help America be America again.
I see in my overturned tomato cages a parable of nations. A flood of wealth and power is dangerous if it washes at the roots of integrity and democracy. The past century may be described in years to come as the century in which democratic principles were in constant conflict with the stresses of global war and temptations of economic expansion. I speak not just of America now, but also of Venezuela, of Congo, of China, of Egypt, of Saudi Arabia. All of these countries have been greatly influenced by poverty and sudden influxes of wealth, by war and reactions against war. None of these countries, excepting only America, currently has a free and democratic government. And some fear, perhaps rightly, that the U.S. is slipping on a treacherous slope. Is Lady Liberty winning the war against dictators, the war against economic hegemony and the poverty of the masses, the war against war itself?
The largest country in the world is a dictatorship, the (let's call it like it is) Empire of China. The second largest is a democracy. The U.S., most of Europe, most of Latin America, the southern tip of Africa, and most of the Pacific Rim is free, with the notable exception of China and notable inclusion of India. After two centuries of constant struggle for freedom, this is a respectable accomplishment on the part of the people of the world, a shining light for others to follow. Across the rest of Asia and most of Africa, there are shadows and darkness. Oligarchs run Russia and the CIS countries, Indonesia is a Javan hegemony supported by American military assistance, and the Arab world is full of dictators and zealot oligarchs. Africa is wracked by instability, war, disease, and poverty, and the world watches with, for the most part, indifference.
Why is the world made like this, you might ask? The easiest answer is that the rich countries wanted it to be this way; they chose the distribution of freedom in the world. They supported dictators in little-noticed countries for economic and political gain, to fight the cause of the moment or exploit their resources quickly. They, the rich and free countries of the world, supplied money, arms, and even soldiers to the cause of oppression and proxy war.
Democracy is just an empty word at home if it is not practiced everywhere. Democracy in the rich, free countries of the world is under constant assault, not just by our enemies abroad, but by our actions abroad.
Take America, the posterchild of Freedom. Every child killed in a foreign country in the 20th century by American troops, every democratically-elected official brought down by CIA action, every gun we sold to dictators that was used to quell bloody rebellions, every nation we invaded to protect our economic and political interest, every country we have troops in to keep the Pax Americana, these all are a blight on the face of Lady Liberty, and a blow to the cause of Democracy. Only honesty, not blatant hypocrisy, will safeguard a republic of free people. The U.S. would be more democratic, freer, and safer, if the entire world were more democratic, freer, and safer.
A more democratic, free, and safe U.S. would not necessarily be richer or more powerful...on the contrary, it would likely be poorer (but still rich) and less powerful. But what is the point of endless riches if others starve in Africa because of it? What is the point of power if your people must fear destruction in their beds at night? The sweet taste of wealth and power has led our nation on a century-long (and still counting), never-ending chase after political and economic domination of the world. And this chase has had clearly negative results.
Since the 1950s the democratic process that is at the heart of our country has been steadily eroded by economic forces and political corruption. In that time, the U.S. has grown more equal, but not more free, more democratic. Our foreign policy has increasingly been dictated by our military and economic interests, and our domestic policy has largely been one of neglect and lassez-faire growth. For the last two decades, less than half of the registered voters actually voted; meaning that no President of the government of the People, by the People, and for the People has been elected by a majority of the People. Our public servants, pressed by the need to get re-elected, care only about raising funds to pay for television advertisements that should be free. Our money-driven politics is paralyzed by partisan bickering.
The gap between the rich and poor is larger than it has ever been in the history of our country. The manufacturing industry, once a vital middle-class force and a generator of American capital, is in ruins. Soil erosion is at an all-time high, and decades of subsidies has concentrated farming, once the American occupation, into the hands of a few heavy-handed megaconglomerates. Only 3% of Americans farm anymore, and agricultural land and wildland is rapidly being swallowed by suburban development. Our land, our beautiful land of purple mountains and amber grain, is becoming increasingly polluted by mercury, altered by global warming and invasive species, over-grazed, strip-mined, clear-cut, and fragmented by poorly managed growth of cities. We are falling behind in the race to create sustainable technologies, we are exporting our scientists to other countries, and science and engineering, the American birthright, is no longer a favored profession for our young workforce. Our cities and countryside are crushed by poverty that resists upswings in the economy, our youth are inured to violence and hypocrisy, and we live under constant threat of terrorist reprisals for our oppressive, interventionist foreign policy.
To all of this I say, as Langston Hughes so eloquently said: Let America be America again. Let us be the steadfast, honest voice in the world for liberty, democracy, and human rights in the world. Let our allies be only the free and the honest, and let our money follow our principles, not the reverse. Let us own up to the hypocrisy in our past, and embrace the new promise of our future. Let us be the America that never was, and will be.
Let America be America again. Let us be a land of middle-class employment, of responsible corporations and people-sized businesses, of organic farms and small-town factories. We want to respect our leaders again, and help our elected officials avoid having to sell their principles for the chance to be heard. Let us free the poor from worrying about sick children, about homelessness, about starvation, and let them worry about finding a good job.
Let America be America again. Let the parks show us beauty, not destruction, let the forests and farms be fruitful forever, not just once, let our air be clean, our waters pure, and the quilt of our landscape, unique and unfragmented. Seize back our birthright of science and engineering, and put it to work on making the world's economy sustainable and pollution-free. In a world with a growing population and diminishing water and unrenewable energy resources, the biggest growth industry of this century will be providing clean water, renewable energy, and energy-efficient appliances and vehicles. Let us be the leader in the technologies of the future, not a follower.
Let America be America again. We want to live, free of fear of attack by foreign terrorists, secure in the knowledge that our troops are not exposed to danger in foreign countries, and confident that our political leaders are not eroding our freedoms. Let us all create the America that never was, but will be, one day, I know it.
Because as America goes, so goes the war for liberty and democracy. The United States of America is the greatest democratic light of the world, and without her we doom humankind to a dark future of beleaguered freedoms, oligarchs, and warlords. The wealth and power of this country is a by-product of the integrity and democracy that originally built it. Let us prevent that wealth and power from being the ruin of this Republic, and let us restore this old house together. She's beautiful, and she will be beautiful again. Let us help America be America again.
posted by Tree Texan at 7:37 PM
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