The juxtaposition of news on television has provided unforgettable civics
lessons for Americans who are inclined to regard their government with ho-hum
indifference.
From Yugoslavia, pictures vividly showed how hundreds of thousands of
demonstrators packed the streets of Belgrade to topple the dictatorship of Slobodan
Milosevic by force to regain their freedom.
In Israel and the Gaza Strip, Israelis and Palestinians drew blood in
their own desperate, clawing and confrontational battle to establish their rights to land.
And in dozens of other lands in Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe,
skirmishes between authoritarian regimes and people hungry for a breath of liberty douse
the landscape with blood.
But here at home, ballots, not blood and bullets, rule as elected
officials in city hall, the statehouse and Washington come and go with little more
violence than abuse of the truth in their campaigns.
Americans have become complacent about their liberties. American voters
register and vote in smaller percentages, while cynicism grows.
Complaints that candidates and their programs are mediocre are
insufficient reason for not voting. What a howl voters would raise if suddenly they were
denied the chance to even vote for lackluster politicians.
Naturalized citizens who’ve fled oppression are astonished by the
spectacle of Americans being offered enticements other than their civic responsibility to
vote—postcard ballots, proposals for Sunday voting, free food at registration desks.
Americans who’ve had the good fortune to visit countries where
freedoms of religion, press, speech and assembly are in short supply or non-existent, and
free elections are a mockery, return home with a more passionate appreciation of their
form of government and how it’s chosen.
The violent images abroad are reminders that even in this time of
unparalleled prosperity and peace in America, we should not take the benefits of democracy
for granted.
