Summary
Recent events in Iran and again in Honduras demonstrate the drift in American foreign policy and contributes to global confusion on what America stands for these days. These are just some private thoughts to share with all. Enjoy the 4th!
Analysis
I am out of the US at the moment and won´t be home for the 4th of July.
As I was thinking about that this morning I thought that it wasn´t such a bad thing and actually it offered some perspective and time to reflect on America.
I happen to be in a Latin American capital where poverty, corruption, elitist control of every element of the country steals hope from most of the population and where all the elements associated with "democracy" and "freedom" are only words used by those in control to cause the vast majority of people to believe they have a voice and a hope for change when in truth they don´t.
Words that are the rallying cry during every "election" to go along with the promises of a better life for the poor and disenfranchised, their children and the masses.
Words that do inspire responses and garner votes by these men and women whose spirits still respond so positively to the idea and concept of those words of "freedom", "democracy" and what they have inspired to all men and women since the dawn of civilization.
I am in a country where the people are fooled into believing that the people they elect and put in the seats of power care about them and are working to make things better for them when they don´t and are only working to satisfy their own greed and lust for power.
Where those in power only look at and seek that power in order to line their own pockets and increase power and influence for themselves and those that are supportive of their continuing control over the lives and futures of these masses whose vote they need but whose lives they care nothing about.
At dinner last night an incredible sadness washed over me as I realized that for the first time in all the time I have been coming here, I actually know how these people must feel inside as they try and go about their daily lives in search and hope of things getting better for them under a government that is less than interested in their futures or those of their children and more interested in power and agendas to increase that power.
At the table with me were some young people in their 30´s and it was even more depressing as we discussed developments from their perspectives as much about politics in America as well as in other countries near to and far from here.
They see their hopes for a future sliding further as they watch America slide further and further down a slope. What was most interesting in the discussion was it had little to do with the current economic slide America is in.
Most believe that America and Americans will get through this.
The prime topic and focus was not economics but rather, how America seemed to be at a point where defending it´s position on democracy and freedom was no longer uppermost in priorities of what America would actively support and ultimately fight for and die for.
One young man said, "it is almost like Americans don´t believe it any more. Kind of like a fighter who has given up and doesn´t want to answer the bell for the next round."
That sent a cold chill down my back and I have to say, upon reflection, I can see why many of the others at the table agreed with him. Especially in the aftermath of the public stand taken on Iran and their election and the confusion and incredible error by the administraton on what has occured in Honduras these last days.
You and I and most of the individuals that make up America would deny that with all our hearts and souls.
We would argue to levels of shouting (as I was ready to do with this young man´s statement) that this was wrong and not at all the truth.
But, sadly, having spent the night reviewing newspapers, magazines and a lot of the threads on various blog sites, I have to say, I can understand the basis of that young persons´statement and unfortunately, belief. It will lead him to desperation if it holds true for much longer.
While as individuals I think we all still hold deep in our hearts and our spirits the truth and spirit of America, our democracy and our freedom, as a Nation we can easily be seen by others to have abandoned those core beliefs.
Even the elected leader of America can be seen to be abandoning those beliefs with many of the positions he is taking.
It is even easy to see why this young man would have chosen a boxer to use as his comparison of where he sees America today.
The current leadership of America and the policies that are being implemented and that are being projected to the world at large is perhaps the greatest "Clear and Present Danger" in the world today, not just for America.
For America to be perceived as lowering it´s determination towards the continuing defense of American ideals and core beliefs is dangerous for the world as America has long been the one force most tyrants and dictators and madmen ruling other nations have had to consider and think about before getting too far out of control and start crossing borders and implementing programs clearly bent on evil and representing danger to neighboring nations and the world at large.
Men who will oppress and kill their own people who would seek change or relief from the oppression they impose do not respond at all to the kinds of positions they see America taking today.
I would like to wake up on July 4th in this capital with a belief that things can get better during the remaining term of this administration, that is so new and so frighteningly lost at the moment. Not just on domestic issues but on major geopolitical fronts but, I have an inner uneasiness that it won´t.
In fact, if anything my business sense and analytical mind tell me that it is going to most likely get worse and remain so for these remaining years of this current administration.
But, that is opinion and one I am permitted to have (for now) and express.
As Americans wake up tomorrow, July 4, 2009, no matter where we are geographically or where we are economically or where we are ideologically, we should all wake up and say to ourselves--
" I am an American. I am free and I do have a voice and can make it heard and make it count. I will do that at each and every chance I get."
People the world over have and are risking their lives to get to that confidence and are actually watching and hoping that I will do exactly that.
They are counting on America and me as an American as there is really no other people or country on the planet that offers so much to individuals as America does when it comes to freedom and democracy and self-determination.
I owe it to myself, my family, my fellow Americans and to Juan and Neda and Ki and Alexi and Maritia and Nihad and Abdulla, I owe it to all peoples everywhere to find the strength of purpose and will to celebrate America every day, to be seen publicly defending the very core beliefs for which the very word "America" has come to stand for in the world. It is the hope of and for democracy and freedom and represents and engenders those ideals in the minds of young people and old people alike no matter what capital city you will ever visit on this planet.
I owe it to my ancestors who took the risk and struggled to get here and to the Founding Fathers, whose courage and faith still lives and whose blood was spilled in war and hard work to reach the writing of these words that form the basis of our core as a Nation and as a peopole. It was then and has been for every generation since the very essence of the land named America and hasalways been more than just words---
These are our roots, these words many times put into action and tested are our core and our soul beliefs for which we have labored and will labor again, for which we have fought and will fight again, that which we have offered and will continue to offer to all who seek freedom and democracy:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
This thread would not let me put in the full transcript but you know it, if you don´t you should.
With these words and beliefs in mind, I will wake up tomorrow morning and Celebrate America--it is still worth it!
Do the same and send up some fireworks---
The world is watching! The world is hoping!
