The American Vision In the past years since September 11th, 2001 I have watched men who seek to control this country for their own agenda defy the will of their own party, the American people and the world. It is the right and the duty of Presidents to create a vision and see it through, but when that vision includes lying to your own people, restricting their rights to assemble, speak out and share in that vision; influence it or even, if they so choose, reject it, that vision is no longer a vision for the country, but the myopic vantage point of a tyrant sitting aloft in his fortress tower on the South Lawn. Though he has called those who challenge him “un-American” for doing so, nothing is further from the truth. The core of America, what has distinguished itself from all the other crumbled empires that came before it, is the spirit of dissent, embodied in liberalism that extends freedom and equality both at home and abroad, while rising to the challenges of bringing the many voices of Mankind under one roof, to one table. Americans know in their hearts that this is their promise; to fulfill the challenge that History has left on our doorstep. It was left on our shores by those who came here for a better life, whether it was during an Ice Age fifteen thousand years ago, to escape persecution for beliefs five hundred years ago, or whether they come today to escape strife in their homeland and seek a better life here. Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The business of America is business”, but with respect to the dazzling Mr. Coolidge, he is wrong. The business of America is Freedom. The business of us all is Freedom. Harry Truman's desk in the Oval Office had a sign that read “The buck stops here”. To "Give em' Hell" Harry, it meant that at the end of the day, he would be the man who would stand accountable for his country, whether for better or worse. That little sign no longer sits on the desk in the Oval Office, but I know it will again. It is not faith in a politician or in a party that makes me believe this, it is my belief in my friends and my family, that small segment of America that I have become privileged to know, for I know that they- that is I know that you have a vision of America. For me that vision is an America that once again sits in the driver’s seat of the progressive libertarian chariot that it forged in its own backyard. I no longer wish to see us be the only major industrialized nation in the world without universal healthcare. I want to see an America that will hold fast to the banner of equality for all its citizens when the prejudices of racism and homophobia try to burn up the staff upon which that banner rides. I want to see abortion made safe, the arts supported and capital punishment outlawed as something as barbaric as Hammurabi’s edict of “An eye for an eye” written nearly three thousand years ago. I want to see these and many other issues come to pass, but more importantly, I want to see a rebirth of the American character. I wish for my age to rediscover that apathy towards politics is the defense we use when power oppresses us. That to be political does not mean being radical or corrupt, but simply being engaged. Americans are not the lazy and fat couch potatoes the network news would have us believe. That conformist lie serves their purposes. America is on the verge of resuming the Great Debate that began in Philadelphia two-hundred and twenty eight years ago when our Constitution brought this nation into existence. The question before us: What is America? While corporations and zealots will tell you time and time again they have the answer, they are fools. The question is its own answer. As long as we keep questioning America- questioning its values, its leaders and its path, it will be America. Last night, the President stood before the nation and said, "If there was a threat before September 11th, we would have moved heaven and Earth to do something to stop it." Mr. President, there was a threat. Your hubris and myopia has convinced you that even today, if it is not in your vision, it does not exist. That lack of vision of course, led to the destruction of the World Trade Center and deaths in D.C. and PA. Mr. President, the buck stops here.

posted by Japhy at 4/14/2004 04:41:00 PM || #