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May 28, 2003

That Vision Thing

... so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
- Voltarine de Cleyre

The United States stands at a crossroads. We will either continue down the road of aggression, class warfare and empire or we will find a way to stop the Neo-Con rape of America and the world. To do this, we desperately need a clear vision that gives us the power to act while it heals our wounds. A vision that calls us to make our country a beacon of freedom and equality, instead of a lightning rod for violence.

Progressives in the United States have been in a defensive posture for a quarter century. We have exhausted ourselves protecting the environment, saving our social institutions, and stopping corporate greed. With all these evils to combat, we have had little time to devote to building the society that we fervently desire. Without a vision that calls on us to act we will continue to be paralyzed. Without a vision that includes working people, all ethnic and cultural groups and all that are in need, we will be fighting to survive, or worse, fighting among ourselves.

It is time to take back the reins of the Democratic Party and include within it the idealism of the Greens. It is time for us to work on our own agenda, our own vision of a “perfect union.” It is time to throw out the “Contract on America.” It is time instead to use our intelligence and collective will to reaffirm the ideals of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Instead of fighting a thousand wildfires, we must begin to act against those who set them. Instead of battling imaginary windmills, we must begin to build real ones. Instead of locking up citizens for crimes without victims, we must stop being victims ourselves. Instead of retreating before the onslaught on our civil rights, we must act against the architects of their dismantling.

We can judge our legislators by their willingness to serve us and to act in our interest. If they are serving us and not a corporate master, no legislation will get past the congress that does not meet our highest standards. Politics does not have to be compromise. If our legislators do not meet our standards of excellence and integrity, it is out duty to elect those that do.

In a previous commentary I described my “perfect world,” my dream for America’s future. Martin Luther King, too, had a dream, a vision of an America where color was not an obstacle to advancement. And his dream lives on in our hearts. It is time that we all start dreaming a dream that ensures our children a future of peace, liberty and equality.

Johnny Peaceseed