The axiom that those who do not learn from the mistakes of history are forever doomed to repeat them holds painfully true in the context of the events currently sweeping throughout countries that for decades have been governed under oppressive and dictatorial regimes. It appears that the American electorate is coming perilously close to repeating the historical mistakes of the past while attempting to remain the shining light of liberty we must be in the world.
A generation ago, people throughout South and Central America who were voicing their opposition to the tyrannical governments in the region were dealt with by those regimes in a manner that resulted in those patriots collectively becoming known as “Los Desaparecidos” – ‘the disappeared ones’. Simply for speaking out, they were taken in the night – never to be seen again.
These people were simply asking for the right to vote in a democratic election. They gave their lives simply for the possibility that their children, their grandchildren , might one day have the right to vote, to have a say in the future of their country, to be given a political voice: to live in freedom.
Today, in a groundswell of populist uprisings, people are freely giving up their lives, on the hope that one day freedom may come to their descendants. The regimes that came to power in those countries did so with the acquiescence of the populace – that permission given mostly by their silence.
In this new media saturation age, given the cable news networks, the internet, social networks and the like, the struggles and loss of life by peoples who have the yearning to be free are continually broadcast to our televisions, computers and portable devices. There can be little way of ignoring their plight, of seeing it all in real time. This country was founded upon the right to be free, and subsequent generations have willingly fought and died to protect the freedoms this country has come to stand for. It is troubling to think that were the American revolution held today, viewed in real time, that there would people who would opt not to fight to win the freedoms they today enjoy, that a consensus majority would choose to remain in silence.
The nature of that silence is the absence of, on average, more than forty percent of the electorate; their choosing not to give voice to their freedom by relinquishing their right, and more importantly, their responsibility to vote.
The presidential election of 2008 was termed ‘historic’ in terms of the percentage of the electorate that voted: it was approximately 63 percent of the voting eligible population. We have in recent memory been electing Presidents of this country, leaders of the free world, with less than a true majority of 30 percent of the country.
It is hard to fathom how the freest people in history can hope to spread that gift to the rest of the world if they make a conscious decision to not defend it.
So when we do not learn the lessons, that freedom cannot be gained without giving voice to that desire, and that it can be lost in the same manner we put into tenuous play our historical place as the leading voice for democratic self rule in the world: we cannot, must not, remain silent in maintaining our own freedom.
Someone, somewhere, TODAY, is giving up their life for their descendants to have the possibility of our freedoms.
A lesson for and from history we must learn and never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment