Tuesday, March 10, 2009

TRUE COURAGE

It takes courage to immigrate to another county. It takes even more courage to stay home and fix the problems in your native land.

Sometimes it is impossible to stay in your own country. People who try to fix problems in their own country can be tortured and killed.

But somehow, the people of each county have to learn how to become a place where people want to live. Fixing a country is dangerous, hard work. I do not know when I have admired members of my profession more than when the lawyers in Pakistan marched in the streets demanding reform.

In my opinion, democracy is not enough.  There must also be an independent, trustworthy court system to decide disputes.  The government must enforce the decisions of these courts.  But most important is to guarantee civil rights to each citizen. People must feel secure to be themselves, whoever they are and whatever they believe. People must feel secure in their homes. People must be able to worship how they believe. People must have health care.

Fixing a government should never be left to the people who are unhappy with the government. The rich and powerful, the educated professionals and the intellectuals should also participate in the governmental process, using their wealth and education to insure that their government provides an environment where all people can thrive.

If you leave the fixing of your county to those who are angry and unhappy, you may not like the results. Often, leaving problems unfixed can lead to violent revolution, and years of repression. Violent revolutionaries often burn the homes of the rich and imprison the intellectuals.

The US found that allowing minorities to live in slums, with no police services, resulted in dangerous riots.  Years of governmental help to these areas have made things better, but not perfect.

The work it takes to provide good government is never done. 



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