Tears streamed
down a broken face
That stared to
the ground where his father lay
At lexington was
he dying this day
For a battle
lost, and a war begun.
In a young boys
hand, A father lifted his head
To look at a son,
so confused and afraid
Who understood
not, for what his father bled
Why he would
fight, What reason for death.
And so as they
looked eye to eye
The boys innocent
lips formed the question, why?
Then With inhuman
strength, A father lifts dying fingers to sky
Pointing to a
cloth, flying on high
His heart burns
like fire, beats like a drum
As with his last
breath he whispers
FREEDOM!
56 men signed a
Declaration of Independence, risking their lives.
1000's of men and
boys died in the Revolutionary war,
And 100's of
1000's more fought and died in wars to come.
56 men created
and signed a document of government so perfect it has endured the test of time
for over 200 years.
Millions of
people have given precious support in the fight for equality and against
racism. For what reason did many
people risk their lives and sacrifice so much?
democracy: n. gov. by the people...
Their hearts burned brightly with the fires of
freedom.
We have been handed a Democracy, handed
freedom. And now we must either throw
this heritage away, by taking it for granted or we must fight our own battle, a
battle without bullets or threats, a battle for democracy. For Freedom isn't Free. We must rule ourselves. It is an almost an obvious fact that in order
for us to rule, we need information. If
the ruling body does not have information than it can do nothing but act
blindly, without direction. This information
comes from the media but, in order for the media accomplish this informative
purpose, so that we the people can rule ourselves, can have a democracy, and
can be free, we must do three things:
Redefine democracy, Listen to the press, and control our press.
Our first problem
is to redefine democracy.
Imagine, a young polish factory worker reads
daily in papers that tell him he is free, because the communistic government
allows elections. The Press tells him
his government has the economy under control.
Yet he finds himself spending his time and money standing in line to buy
over-priced bread so his babies can live another day. Among the graffiti that began to appear in
Poland was an especially significant complaint, Prasa klamie ("The press
lies").
However, free media from countries like the
U.S. filtered to the Polish people revealing the truth about their
economy. Once the people heard the
truth, they gained power and this lead
to the elections of 1989, their first
non communist Prime Minister in years.
Knowledge is power. A free press
is still necessary to a democracy even when free elections occur.
And having a
free media will lead to a more democratic form of gov.
Countries get away with being
called democracies when, by definition they are not. We must redefine democracy as the Freedom of
the press, not the voting in elections.
In the situation of Poland as in countless
others, power can be linked directly to information.
In early America, whites kept power over their
black slaves by forbidding them to learn to read. they held the information and thus the power.
In the U.S. we have the information, but to
hold it, we must grasp it.
Our second problem is hearing the press
In the mid 1980's a young journalist in his
twenties got the job of his dreams when Time magazine assigned him to cover the
Middle East. A month later his feedback
of information stopped and there was silence.
Frantic officials followed this trail of silence. It led to Islamic terrorists who bragged they
had kidnapped an "American spy."
for a year, this young
journalist's right hand and foot were chained to a radiator. He was starved and violently beaten many
times without purpose. When his release
was finally negotiated, he came back to
the United States and had enough strength to report on his year in
captivity.
At times the information being casually read by
American citizens over the breakfast table is information sealed by a
reporter's blood. That is his part in a
free press government. All that is
needed now, is that we do ours, read it!
Without information a populace cannot
rule. And if a populace cannot rule,
then, by definition there is no democracy.
We are so proud in United States for being a democracy. But, if we do not stay informed, then by
definition we are not . We must grasp
the information to hold the power.
I am not, however saying that we should blindly
and undoubtingly follow the information of the press, for we have an extra
challenge.
Our third problem controlling the press.
U.C.L.A. sociologist James Q. Wilson points out
the curious fact that on city streets where broken windows go unrepared, crime
rate soars. Why? the windows make an
announcement: Here standards have been
broken down, here no authority applies;
Come and do what you like without consequences. Today, media has become a gigantic broken
window to the world. Portrayal of life
without consequences sends the message that chaos reigns. A common claim of the media is that they just
show real-life. Really? Around 350
characters appear on prime time, studies
show an average of 7 of these are murdered each night. If this rate applied in reality, then in just
around 50 days everyone in the entire U.S. would be killed. And the last one left could shut off the
T.V. Ralph Nader states that "The
media has 2 purposes, to inform, and to entertain, and though the informing
part is good, the entertaining part will often focus on the horrid and the
vulgar. Perhaps a free media does not
always do what we bargained for. Perhaps
the media doesn't always mirror life.
Perhaps life might also mirror the media.
So, what do we do? Thomas Jefferson, too, wondered about the
free media: "I deplore, the putrid state into which the press has passed,
and the vulgar spirit of those who write them." Could we not put strong government controls
on the media to reduce such vulgarity?
In answer, Thomas Jefferson gives us another more simple truth:
"Our Liberty depends on freedom of the press, that cannot be limited without
being lost." Disturbing elements
will never entirely disappear from the media-nor should they-but we must
continue to speak out against the wrong, and advocate the good. Also, the press prints what people read. We cannot simply tell the media we think this
isn't right, we must show them through what we read. And in the future we may even have a chance
to enjoy a media as fundamentally decent as the people who live in this great
country.
In summation,
we must first redefine democracy as NOT the freedom to vote, but
actually, freedom through the press.
Secondly, we must listen and become informed of our media. And Third, we
must control or censor the press through what we read. And for what reason must these things burn
like fire in our hearts?
Democracy: n.
Freedom.
Those who have died in the struggle for free
media do not die in vain. They die a
hero's death in the struggle for democracy.
Then With inhuman
strength, A father lifts dying fingers to sky
Pointing to a
cloth, flying on high
His heart burns
like fire, beats like a drum
As with his last
breath he whispers
FREEDOM!
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