Dear Editor,
In our last letter, we discussed the theory of leadership. We asserted that without of leadership, there is no “community,” there is only a bunch of individuals plotting their own paths, and no way to resolve the inevitable crossing of those paths.
We further asserted, someone has to make the decisions. Someone has to organize communal efforts. Someone has to decide a path, when there are two or more ways to accomplish a goal that affects all our neighbors.
The history of the world has been a variety of forms of tyranny. Monarchs, dictators, war lords, emperors (and other titles) have been the “rulers” with the masses being mere subjects. “The people” under these tyrannies had no power, no say, and no freedom.
With the founding of America, there is a great experiment whereby WE THE PEOPLE have the power, and we CHOOSE our leaders. In this system, WE THE PEOPLE can retain our freedom, our power, and we can have a deciding say in our governance.
The method by which we choose our leadership is called DEMOCRACY, where we VOTE for our leaders and our representatives – by majority rule – and they decide what the states and the nation will do about communal problems (also by majority rule).
Pure democracy has a problem, and that is the potential of tyranny of the majority. A shorthand for this problem is the prospect of three wolves and a sheep VOTING on what’s for supper. The sheep needs protection from such mob rule, thus in America we have a Constitution which protects the individual’s rights against the desires of any majority. The majority cannot take any action or make any law that violates the rights of the individual, and those individual rights are spelled out in our Constitution.
Since we are human beings, our ability towards making this a “more perfect union” (as aspired to in our Constitution) has been a constant struggle and challenge over the decades and centuries. We are imperfect, but with the Constitution as our guide, we strive to achieve the goals our founders laid out. In basic terms, our American goal are justice, equality, prosperity, and peace.
The uniqueness of America is that we can pursue a more perfect union, can have leadership that seeks to realize the goals of justice and prosperity, and still retain our individual freedoms and power. We do not have to turn to tyranny in the hopes our goals will be achieved; tyranny would destroy our individual freedom and power. If we abandon our Constitutional system, our experiment in self-rule would fail after two and a half centuries.
It is frustrating when we don’t get our way, either personally or when our vote does not win in a majority. Our challenge is then to win over more support for our side, rather than abandoning the entire system.
A tyrant wanna-be will tell us ALL our systems are corrupt, ALL our institutions are failing, and the only answer is to abandon our Constitution, the rule of law, and our democracy. What that tyrant is really saying is that YOU should no longer have freedom, YOU should no longer have any say in your governance, YOU should just resolve to being a subject rather than a citizen. How many tens of thousands have died protecting our Constitution, our freedom, and our power? Was their sacrifice all in vain?
Jeff Harrison
Buffalo, Texas
