What Democracy?
The Founding Fathers of the new nation of the United States were uniquely wise in their understanding of the failings of the systems of government that had gone before. They recognized that a state must be flexible, changing, and able to withstand the imperfections of individuals who govern. The creators of its constitution knew the endless lessons of grief that so many states and cultures had visited upon themselves and others.
Religious men themselves, they recognized the imperative of separation of church and state. The government of the many, by the many, must be able to learn, change, grow wiser, and embrace tolerance. Where the practice of democracy may not have been perfect, the vision of democracy was clear to its creators.
In the interest of unity – and immediate survival – a nation that was born allowing the institution of slavery was not one of universal democracy. The founding fathers left this chapter purposely blank, knowing that it would take time and cultural growth to correct this injustice. They left their conduct as servants of the state as a guide for future generations.
It is not a perfect democracy where any of its citizens do not have the vote or equal status before the law. Where women, minorities or any other disenfranchised citizens are waiting their turn for an equal voice there is a forming democracy – not a mature one.
Therefore, “democracy”? and “freedom’? are relative, not absolute terms. They are labels on a skeleton system of governance that is only meaningfully defined by the tolerance, wisdom and compassion of its citizens.
Democracy is mature and good only when those who make laws and enforce actions would willingly walk in the shoes of those to whom these laws and actions are applied.
We would add corruption to the blights of a democracy. A wise voice (Eisenhower) warned of the military-industrial complex. If money, greed, and dishonesty buy and sell officials and agencies of government, there is a democracy only in name, not in substance.
We of Amerindia are concerned that what is called “democracy”? is turning back the tide of tolerance, compassion and a truly caring state. In its place grows a rigid doctrine of righteousness and exclusion. We wonder what family is “vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,” what rough beast slouches its way through Bethlehem, and on toward an intolerant democracy.
The Queen of Amerindia