Egypt managed to show us all that peaceful change is possible in that most violent of places the Middle East. Each individual who traveled to Cairo and participated in the demonstrations, each soldier who stayed calm, each politician who managed to keep a sense of perspective, each and every Egyptian who kept calm and chose peace over violence deserves our admiration. Gandhi was right: if a nation stands up nothing can move them until change has taken place.
I like to think that democracy is something in which I have participated at least twice. I have only ever voted twice in a national election so at 53 years I have a very poor voting average. I tend to take democracy for granted because I now live in the USA. I accept all to readily the benefits of the system without actually participating in it to any great degree. When there is an election I follow, to a degree, the issues and the campaigns but once the election is over I press the snooze button and huddle down under the duvet with a good book. The weeks, months and years roll by until the next election which is when I rouse myself to peek out, listen, read and yawn before finding the polling booth. Certainly the over kill cover that the American media give to the elections can kill enthusiasm for the process but I think there is something else wrong with the approach to democracy.
My almost three year old grandson is a great boy. He is loving, kind, naughty on occasion - just enough to show a fine spirit -, curious, active and perfect. For all that I know that if I allow him to do what ever he wants he might stick a pen up his nose, eat something bad for him, paint on the walls etc. He is, after all, a child and as such requires that the adults around him help him learn about the world and how best to both navigate his way through it and find his place in it. Which is where we, I think, make a fundamental mistake with the democratic process.
We elect officials, celebrate victories and wave them goodbye as they head off to the State Senate, and Washington D.C. We expect them to do what they promised, pay attention to the matters that concern us, vote in accordance with our wishes and behave themselves with a sense of decorum that keeps our county and state with a good reputation. We expect them to be well read, intelligent, unselfish, unswayed by lobbyists and almost perfect. When they fail we tell ourselves that it is entirely their fault and the power of our vote will keep them out of office should they be stupid enough to run again. Which of course they do, and often manage to confuse us by winning reelection.
So what is my complaint? The system has worked for centuries. It has proved to be a good, if imperfect, system that certainly is one that I prefer to live within. My complaint is about me. The me that waits for the media to announce and election, a problem, a cause for concern before I lift my head and pay attention. The me that doesn't know the name of my representatives until I need to write a letter to one of them. Me who waits so far from the wings of politics that I am in the mountains when the action is five hundred miles away, or ... yes at the press of a button, a movement of a mouse. Why don't I know more, do more? Because I have to buy the groceries, look after a house, wash the car, water the lawn, cook dinner, work and even without me the system has enough people focused on it to work.
It does work. But how much better would it work if I was paying attention. If I knew what bills were coming before the Senate, the House, the President and what interest groups were being represented. You can argue that one person does not make a difference but I beg to differ. If no one person had sent out a call for change in Egypt Mubarak would be having dinner in the Presidential Palace. I certainly do not think the USA needs a revolution except perhaps one where its citizens are paying attention to what their representatives are doing with the vote that each of us gave them to use. You can do a lot of damage, and good in two years, and even more in four. If we deserve the government we get then we deserve lazy, self interested, snooze button representation. I accept that you and I can't spend 20 hours a day following politics, local and national. But ask yourself this: how much time a week do you spend gathering information about budgets, bills, proposals etc that will in six months, a year have a direct effect on your daily life? Eight hours, four hours, an hour? We send people to represent us so that we don't have to spend time concerning ourselves over every little thing that relates to government. Little things tend to become big things very quickly. I certainly do not know how my representatives have voted since I went to the ballot box. Am I to rely on media interpretation to tell me that or should I spend a few hours a week just reading up on what has been happening. The internet is a wonderful tool and there are sites readily available that give those interested the information.
There lies the rub: those who are interested. When something works we tend to leave it alone. My vote is mine as long as I don't do anything to have it taken away from me. Every two years I get to use it. It is a privilege that I can vote. It is a privilege to be a member of a largely peaceful society where people are sent as our representatives and, in general, manage to do decent jobs even if I did not vote for the particular person currently in office. It is wonderful and I appreciate it but I think the danger is in taking it for granted. Like a good relationship democracy works best when we pay attention. We do not need to devote every waking hour to it but I think that I need to kick back the duvet, switch off the snooze button at least once a week. After all we the people are the democracy. If we forget that we jeopardise the very democracy of which we are so proud.
So here is a single web site from which to start:
http://thomas.loc.gov/
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