COMMENTARY: Why Democracy Makes Us Crazy

c. 2000 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS.) (UNDATED) Democracy is messy. That may be the only definitive statement possible about the Elian Gonzalez matter. Some Americans are angry about Elian’s treatment; others are angry that he has received so much attention while other children are neglected. Some are sick of […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS.)

(UNDATED) Democracy is messy.


That may be the only definitive statement possible about the Elian Gonzalez matter.

Some Americans are angry about Elian’s treatment; others are angry that he has received so much attention while other children are neglected.

Some are sick of hearing about the whole thing.

But in the midst of a situation that has been a public relations nightmare for everyone from Janet Reno to Cuban Americans, there remains one absolute truth: Democracy is at work.

One little boy’s plight will bring new attention to immigration status, the use of force by federal agents, the way we make foreign policy and how we view the status of fathers.

Elian has set in motion a variety of movements and campaigns that will ultimately result in referendums, bills and votes. Some politicians will win, others will lose. Voters will be motivated to give opinions on matters they never before considered.

In the end, democracy will prevail. And despite the sense that we seem to be knee-deep in a media cesspool right now, we should celebrate that fact.

Dictatorships are neat and clean. In Cuba, reactions are dictated and controlled. In China, an incredibly large and diverse group of people reacts uniformly. But in the United States, we say whatever we think just about whenever we think it, often with cameras rolling.

To the rest of the world _ at least the world allowed to see us _ we must look like spoiled children at times. We fuss and feud over our various self-interests, sometimes seeming to say nothing more important than, “What about me?”

Yet in the end we consider what is fair for all, what principles should prevail, and how we can keep this amazing long- term experiment in democracy from blowing sky-high. Somehow we manage to keep its fragile fabric from unraveling.

This year my son has been studying U.S. history in high school and I have been helping him review for tests, a commitment that started as a labor of love and has turned out to be a wonderfully rich educational experience for me.


Much of what he has been studying has been a review for me. But a fair amount has been news to me, partially because history was taught differently decades ago.

Now U.S. history books include the mistakes and missteps, sometimes revealing the self-interests that propelled our policies and the behind-the-scenes bargains that guided our governance.

It isn’t always a pretty picture. Yet it is a surprisingly reassuring one.

Our founding fathers weren’t perfect and neither are we. They got it wrong and we will, too. But over time we will refocus and redistribute, close loopholes and add protections.

Elian Gonzalez, a little Cuban boy, will change our history. Had he landed on other shores he might have been ignored.

But here in the United States, where every voice is important, a child and all he represents has made adults fighting mad. As ugly as it is at times, democracy is a beautiful thing.

AMB END BOURKE

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