Friday, September 19, 2014

Democracy Can Be Messy .... Troubling Times


 
There was a post on my Facebook page recently. Rather disturbing. I don’t know who posted it in the first place but the request was that we all pass it on.

The photograph showed a man working (not his face, but his back). He was wearing a t-shirt and the Facebook post indicated that the logo on the back of the t-shirt indicated that the wearer was a member of ISIS. And that “they are here in America” everyone – beware.


I don’t know how to fact check this, but it won’t surprise me if the post is correct. ISIS is here. Why wouldn’t it be?

America was founded on principals that included freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly. But this idea of democracy is becoming more and more troubling in our modern world. Do we allow freedom of speech only if we agree with what the speaker is saying? Do we allow freedom of religion only if the beliefs echo ours? Do we allow freedom of assembly only if the person belongs to groups supporting American ideals? How messy…..how complicated……how frightening.

How much easier it would be if we lived in a police state. Someone comes to work wearing a t-shirt with a slogan we don’t approve of….call the police, he is taken in, locked up…..throw away the key. But is that America?

I admit that I am frightened. I wish I felt more optimistic. I wish there was an easy answer….but I fear there is not. Ideology spreads, anger ferments, the haves and the have-nots grow ever farther apart. Unrest in one part of the world spreads quickly…..we are connected instantly, thanks to social media and ever-changing-technology. Borders seem almost obsolete.

I hope we never see another 911…….but I fear that we will. Or we will see something worse. The bridges that connect us are weakening….the chasms that divide us deepening.

I don’t have an answer….do you?

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