I Miss My Country

Published on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

by Victor Rozek

In my country there are no free speech zones. On this soil, speech is not fenced and cannot be arbitrarily quarantined for the convenience of those it may challenge or offend. The entire nation is a free speech zone, and the more unpopular the speech, the more fiercely it is defended. In my country the voices of dissent are honored and encouraged because they offer the best opportunity for popular opinion to mature and self-correct. Debate is invited and demanding questions are welcomed, since only those policies that withstand challenge and examination are ultimately embraced. My nation has wise and honorable leaders who are unafraid to walk among their people. They engage in dialogue and do not fear respectful protest knowing there is nothing to learn from unquestioned agreement. Here, political audiences are not vetted and sworn to loyalty before they may stand in the presence of power. In my country, compassion is a verb, not an adjective. Action, not rhetoric is compassion�s proof. Here, the weakest among us are not left to the incertitude of market forces or the unreliable promise of volunteers. We do not subject those with modest means to what we ourselves would not wish: that our welfare depend solely on erratic economic cycles or the availability of benevolent strangers. In my country, we know that the market has no conscience and is not the final arbiter of human values. We understand that the function of regulation is to provide an ethical framework for the market, not to restrain investment, but to dissuade misrepresentation and theft. In my country, "government" is not a dirty word. My government takes its constitutional responsibility to "Promote the General Welfare" seriously. Its priorities come from these inspired words which are both a measure and a standard for the choices we make. My country understands that attention to the common good is what makes civil society possible and just. Truth is valued here and journalists are the keepers of the truth and are not for sale. They are the firewall which stands ready to challenge the secrets and lies of misused power and alert the citizenry. Propaganda is not tolerated in my country. It is something practiced in faraway places by fearful people lacking the wisdom and goodness to lead honorably. My government respects the grantors of its power�the people�and sees no need to lie, deceive, and misrepresent its policies and intentions. It does not fear transparency. In my country, back rooms are for storage, not the making of policy. My country is not ideologically intransigent, but recognizes that everyone holds a piece of the truth. It heeds history�s lesson that those who wish to impose their beliefs on others are building the on-ramp to tyranny. My country values its sacred honor and therefore honors its agreements and treaty obligations. My government doesn�t spy on its citizens without cause and legal sanction. My country is not populated by torturers, nor does it imprison people without charges or access to legal representation. The Bill of Rights is our state religion and there is nothing any group or nation can do to us that would cause us to abandon it. My country does not wage war without provocation. If it must go to war it does so only with the greatest regret and reluctance borne of exhausting all of its considerable intellectual and moral resources in the attempt to resolve its differences peacefully. In my country, violence is the refuge of the unresourceful. In the rare instance our soldiers are asked to fight and die, their families need not wonder whether they died for the good of the nation or for the whim of the government. Our causes are just, and other nations join us from conviction, not because they were bribed or bullied to take up our standard. My country respects and lives in harmony with the environment. It knows that our well being, our economy, and ultimately our survival depend on functioning natural systems. My nation understands that the health of the external environment is a reflection of the health of our people and the appropriateness of our priorities. When nature tells us that our people are ailing and our priorities are misplaced, my nation is courageous enough to make necessary corrections. In my country, policy and political favor are not purchasable. Corporations are not automatically granted eternal life and wholesale immunity. They are chartered by the people to provide specific products and services; they do not govern by paid proxy. My country respects all religions and supports none. It understands that faith is, by definition, unproven and unprovable and therefore provides a poor foundation for secular governance. Ethical behavior is not a byproduct of religious belief, but a moment-by-moment choice available to everyone of all beliefs. The cynics will say that the country I describe never existed. Perhaps. But I know with every cell and fiber in my being that it can exist because it dwells in my heart and in the hearts of millions like me. It seems as if I turned my back just for a moment, and in that moment of inattention my country has lost its way. It cries out now for the full and unrelenting dedication of those who still remember and value its promise. I must look to myself first. If I have failed my country, I resolve to speak more clearly and act more assertively in defense of a nation I no longer see but I know exists. I will not forsake it to be defiled one outrage at a time. Silence is complicity, and I can be silent no more. "As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air -- however slight -- lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness." -- Justice William O. Douglas In my country, darkness never has�and will not now�withstand the coming light. Victor is a freelance writer and president of Rozek & Daggett Coaching and Consulting.

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