What comes to mind when you hear the word “democracy”? Cleisthenes, the founder of Greek democracy, clad in his
white linen chlamys as he presides over the downfall
of the tyrant oligarchs? George Bush proclaiming his “victory” in 2000? American
voters in blue states and red states? Iraqi voters with their blue-died fingers
and red-stained streets?
When I hear democracy, I think of the line of citizens
waiting to talk at a public hearing in the main room of Petaluma’s Cavanagh center. In this Norman Rockwellesque
scene, fellow citizens speak their minds and, one by one, change the minds of
City officials. The way it should be.
How much do we truly value democratic freedom? Do we take it
for granted? Is it worth the 20,000 lives and 200 billion dollars spent to
knock down and rebuild Iraq in America’s image? (BTW, $400 million of the $200
billion is coming from Sonoma County – see nationalpriorities.org. When will this nation put some serious money
into finding a better way to liberate people than by killing people? Is freedom
through violence sustainable in a nuclear-armed world?)
It’s noble of our President to preach freedom to Russian
President Putin, but Putin’s
shrewd enough to know Bush’s bottom line: freedom for international capital. Am
I being over-the-top cynical to suggest that the Bushmen care less about Russian
press freedom than the liberty of the Russian oligarchs incarcerated by Putin, those billionaire capitalists who made their killing
during the fire sale liquidation of Soviet state assets? If so, please explain
why the Bushies supported the unsuccessful 2002 coup
against democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and supported a
2004 recall of Chavez that failed by a 58-42 margin? Was it because Chavez
fought for expansion of government support for the poor, and against privatization
of the country’s huge oil reserves?
And freedom of the press? Karl Rove’s
far too clever to try a Putin-style shut down of American
media. Much easier, it is, to enable media consolidation in the hands of
conservative capitalists (Fox’s Rupert Murdoch), to put conservative pundits on
the White House payroll (Armstrong Williams), to let Republican Party shills
(Jeff Gannon aka James Guckert)
pose as journalists and lob softballs to Bush at White House briefings. The
strategy: democracy dies so slowly that the majority fails even to notice. So,
fellow citizens, when you hear about the “ownership society” and “Operation
Iraqi Freedom”, ask: who will be free to own the oil? Who will be free to own
the media? And who will own the voting machines?
We need Operation American Freedom. North Bay’s very own
Senator Boxer just co-introduced (with Senator Clinton) the “Count Every Vote
Act of 2005”. This measure covers a long list of voting reforms, including the
requirement of voter-verified paper ballot for all electronic voting machines.
And I say: if democracy truly is precious to us, why on earth would we put the
very foundation of democracy – the ballot – under the control of the private
companies who manufacture electronic voting machines? This should be a state
run enterprise, using open-source (not proprietary) computer code. Says author
Thom Hartmann, “Our vote is too important to be outsourced to private
corporations.”
While we’re at it, let’s continue Operation Petaluma
Freedom. Voters overwhelmingly approved the Campaign Finance Reform ordinance
last November, a significant step in reducing the corrupting influences on the
City Council. But the Council’s actions on the garbage hauling contract suggest
that more should be done. Petaluma Tomorrow is circulating advisory petitions
urging the Council to adopt guidelines for ethical conduct in awarding
franchise agreements and other major contracts. The guidelines would: 1)
prohibit private meetings with bidders during bidding and negotiation; 2)
provide for termination of contracts if the contractee
is convicted of certain crimes, such as bribery, fraud, and price fixing; and
3) prevent the contractee from making campaign
contributions to Council Members. Get a petition at www.petaluma-tomorrow.org.
I heard it so often in my youth: “with freedom comes
responsibility.” Today, if we don’t take personal responsibility for engaging
in democracy to protect our freedom, our freedom will soon be gone.