[Prev| Next| Index] 2/22/96 Adam Turoff, Philadelphia, PA USA

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Power of Democracy

By Adam Turoff, adam@phat.com.

I was born and raised in Philadelphia. For a lot of people, this city is
the cradle of liberty; for me, it is just a place to call home. I've
visited Independance Hall, the Liberty Bell and all of the other sites at
Independance Mall since before I can remember. Today, I live about 10
minutes away from Independance Mall, and I walk past it at least once a
week. When I walk see sites, I inevitably think about the ideas that have
come out of this cradle of liberty I find in my backyard.

While I have a high regard for the ideals that define our nation, I
alternate between love and hate for what they have mutated into. Economic
Opportunity. Environmental Pollution. Freedom of Speech. Political
Entrenchment. Political Activism. Taxation. Freedom of Religion. Pro-Life
Murderers. Technological Innovation. Urban Warfare. Breadbasket of the
World. Topsoil Erosion. Checks and Balances. Frivolous Litigation. Ethnic
Tolerance and Diversity. Hate Crimes.

Two hundred twenty years ago, it was impossible to predict all this. No one
could have forseen the effect of steam engines, slavery, westward
expansion, electricity, cars, airplanes, chemistry, nuclear physics,
telephones or computers. Yet, the framework left us by our founding fathers
has been able to adjust as our world has changed. There are times I look at
everything wrong in our society and our nation and I think the best
solution is to start from scratch, learning from two centuries of changes
and mistakes. And just when I've given up on our government, I begin to see
that it would be impossible to get any significant group of people in this
country to agree on a framework that could improve upon our 209-year old
Constitution. It is rather easy to focus on the flaws in our current set of
politicians. It is more difficult to see our government as an organic
system that has evolved over two centuries, and will continue to evolve in
the future.

The foundation of our country is that we govern ourselves. As society
changes, we can change the way our society works. Once enlightened, we
outlawed the practice of people owning people as property. We have
redefined our definition of man in the political sense to include men of
all races, as well as women, even if it took 150 years to do it. We decided
once to protect our society from the Devil by outlawing all forms of
alcohol, only to regain our collective senses a few years later. Our
government has been able to adapt as we have incorporated new technologies
into our society, such as telegraphs, railroads, cars, planes, pesticides,
petroleum, electricity and nuclear power to name a few. It has also adapted
as our country metamorphisized from a backwater nation into one of the
world's first superpowers.

Our Constitution grants us as citizens a lot of power and ensures a great
deal of freedom. Both have their price - constant vigilance to make sure we
maintain our freedoms and keep our government responsive to us and our
changing world. If we as individuals pay this price once a year or less,
then we have not fufilled our civic duty, and have no right to complain
about our government whatsoever. Simply put, if you don't vote, don't
bitch. On the other hand, if any aspect of the government offends us, we
have the power to change it, just as we have been doing for the past two
centuries. It may take some time, but that works to our advantage. If our
government changed too quickly, then change would come too easily, and it
would be easier to make the wrong changes, such as the recent
Telecommunications Reform Act which contained Senator Exon's Communications
Decency Amendment. As a further testament to the wisdom of the Founding
Fathers, the checks and balances set up among the 3 branches of the Federal
Government have been able to stop this ludicrous amendment from being
enforced - thus far.

If the passage of the Telecom Reform Act (which contained the Exon
Amendment) infuriate you as much as it does me, just remember this. We live
in a democratic society, and we are the ones who have ultimate control of
our government. If you don't like what's going on in Washington, change it.
Elect representatives that know which side of a modem cable is up. Remind
them that they work for you, and that stupid Internet policies like the one
proposed by Senator Exon are best forgotten. Keep abreast of what's going
on in Washington, and remind your representatives what legislation you
support. Kick the clueless legislators out of office, and elect for the
ones who have brains and support your views, about the Internet or whatever
else is important to you.

The rest is up to you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------