04/22/06 The Cap Times Takes Democracy Seriously

Dear Editor: On April 15, Rick Wiley wrote a letter in response to the Bring the Troops Home Now referendum vote. I would suggest that he was playing very loosely with his use of several significant words.

Consider his attack that your newspaper "takes the ... idea of democracy ... lightly." My dictionary says that democracy is government by the people ... of, by and for the people is probably the more common understanding. I am grateful that The Capital Times does take that seriously enough to encourage public discourse, public opinion sharing and public decision-making.

"Freedom is God's gift to every man, woman and child," Wiley writes, and declares that "the people of Iraq and Afghanistan never knew freedom until (our military) delivered it," missing entirely that usual sense of a gift as something offered, something voluntarily transferred, not something required or demanded by force. Then we are told that "freedom is taking root in places where it never existed before." To describe the chaos and death in Iraq today as God's gift to every (one) not only does a travesty to the meaning of freedom but also to the meaning of God.

Next we are told that "the oppressive regimes of the Middle East breed terrorists full of hatred." More simply, oppression breeds hatred. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the nation's seeming endless acts of oppression over the last 300 years have made us enemies across the ages and around the globe.

Finally, "the only thing that will take the wind out of the terrorists' sails is a free, prosperous, stable Middle East." But upon our terms, of course: "free" as long as they do our bidding; "prosperous" in things, but poor in spirit -- like us; "stable," as resisting forces of change, even among its own people.

"Every day we are on offense and working to spread democracy is a day there is less of a chance we will be defending ourselves in Milwaukee ..." It seems to me that the reality of life is that every day we are on offense is a day when someone else loses the opportunity of the gifts of freedom and democracy, a day of more terror and more hatred. All this is why The Capital Times' emphasis on public discourse and public decision-making encourages us to take our democracy so seriously.

Ken Gelhaus Madison