Democracy at Work in America Part 1
Democracy in its ideal sense is the notion that "the people" should have the right to rule themselves. that is so taking for granted in the US. I begun to understand what democracy is as a teenager when I heard that attempt on President Reagan’s life had taken place and the alleged assassin was captured immediately. The most striking thing to me was the fact that the shooter John Hinckley had his day in court and found not guilty by reason of insanity: that is when I knew that democracy included the rule of law; the accused is innocent before found guilty. I am Ethiopian and I was living in Ethiopia at that time, there wasn’t democracy in Ethiopia nor was it a rule of law. I asked my self then why Ethiopia has no system of a government that is adhere to democratic system, it was that notion the most bothersome to me than how poor Ethiopia was (still is). The only connection I had with democratic countries was through Voice of America (VOA) the Amharic Service and the deutsche welle the German radio station in Amharic (Amharic is A Semitic language that is the official language of Ethiopia.). I have lived in the US since 1990, although I am not a US citizen, I have expressed my feelings and exercise my right in participatory manner short of electing representatives who could represent me which is exclusively the right given to citizens of this country. Many Americans take the right to be represented very lightly; I have had discussions about different issues with many people, I am sorry to say I am not impressed: people are not investigative, suspicious, inquirers. These people I have been talking to are mostly from middle or low income background. War, budget deficit, progressive tax, separation of state and religion, cronyism, healthcare, education, justice and fairness not discussed very much and I am not sure why. People I discussed with has given up they make a different, yet they could be manipulated easily by their government because they haven’t cared enough and studied enough to come to understanding about issues. Americans always wait until disaster strike, the resource this country has wasted in programs mostly people don’t understand that causes people to wonder why 45 million people has no healthcare coverage; and think America doing good around the world little did they know their government lied about going to war in many wars before and victimized other nations in which the wars benefited neither the invader (the US) or invaded. Americans are emotional about dramatic events like 9-1-1 but careless about the background, about the underlining issues, about people’s grievances. So many times I have heard people squarely put the responsibility on Islam and Muslims, hardly anyone ask that attack took the life of 3000 people is the work of infringed group name Al Qaeda which was mostly unknown before that day. Instead of methodical dismantling of that group through arrest, dealing with the agenda of Al Qaeda, working with Muslim groups as a common enemy, the Bush Administration dealt in dramatic escalation of the situation through invasion of countries, torturing prisoners, abusing detainees, applying laws that contrary to privacy law rules and branding people who questioning their government as traitors.
Democracy in its ideal sense is the notion that "the people" should have the right to rule themselves. that is so taking for granted in the US. I begun to understand what democracy is as a teenager when I heard that attempt on President Reagan’s life had taken place and the alleged assassin was captured immediately. The most striking thing to me was the fact that the shooter John Hinckley had his day in court and found not guilty by reason of insanity: that is when I knew that democracy included the rule of law; the accused is innocent before found guilty. I am Ethiopian and I was living in Ethiopia at that time, there wasn’t democracy in Ethiopia nor was it a rule of law. I asked my self then why Ethiopia has no system of a government that is adhere to democratic system, it was that notion the most bothersome to me than how poor Ethiopia was (still is). The only connection I had with democratic countries was through Voice of America (VOA) the Amharic Service and the deutsche welle the German radio station in Amharic (Amharic is A Semitic language that is the official language of Ethiopia.). I have lived in the US since 1990, although I am not a US citizen, I have expressed my feelings and exercise my right in participatory manner short of electing representatives who could represent me which is exclusively the right given to citizens of this country. Many Americans take the right to be represented very lightly; I have had discussions about different issues with many people, I am sorry to say I am not impressed: people are not investigative, suspicious, inquirers. These people I have been talking to are mostly from middle or low income background. War, budget deficit, progressive tax, separation of state and religion, cronyism, healthcare, education, justice and fairness not discussed very much and I am not sure why. People I discussed with has given up they make a different, yet they could be manipulated easily by their government because they haven’t cared enough and studied enough to come to understanding about issues. Americans always wait until disaster strike, the resource this country has wasted in programs mostly people don’t understand that causes people to wonder why 45 million people has no healthcare coverage; and think America doing good around the world little did they know their government lied about going to war in many wars before and victimized other nations in which the wars benefited neither the invader (the US) or invaded. Americans are emotional about dramatic events like 9-1-1 but careless about the background, about the underlining issues, about people’s grievances. So many times I have heard people squarely put the responsibility on Islam and Muslims, hardly anyone ask that attack took the life of 3000 people is the work of infringed group name Al Qaeda which was mostly unknown before that day. Instead of methodical dismantling of that group through arrest, dealing with the agenda of Al Qaeda, working with Muslim groups as a common enemy, the Bush Administration dealt in dramatic escalation of the situation through invasion of countries, torturing prisoners, abusing detainees, applying laws that contrary to privacy law rules and branding people who questioning their government as traitors.
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