by Phyllis Stenerson

July 4, 2008

Are we the ones who will witness democracy’s demise? I don’t think this is what poet June Jordan had in mind when she wrote, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

It could happen.

When a small segment of the population has a disproportionate amount of the wealth, it’s called a plutocracy. When a small group controls money, government and the military, that’s fascism. When one religion dominates, it’s theocracy. When leaders lie to the people, start a war, flaunt national and international laws, trash the environment and amass a monstrous debt, that’s just plain terrifying. Many fear the democracy of we the people is dangerously close to crumbling, overtaken by one of the other systems of government.

But it won’t.

--MORE--