“When you shall say, as others do, so will I: I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season; then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson”What is This Truth?,” written in 1838, is a wise, relevant challenge for us today. It speaks of empty contentment, as well as apathy, a problem in our country around election time. Rumblings from the loudest of cynics abound. Some say that democracy might vote itself out of existence. Granted, finding an honest, capable politician is like finding a dog who will only eat brussels sprouts. I refuse to settle for what the politicians have been willing to give us. Bush has been criticized for speaking at Bob Jones University, well known for it’s anti-Catholic rhetoric. At first, he refused to apologize for his actions. Then his advisers, or his conscience, prompted him to make a half-hearted apology. Later, McCain was accused of trying to tear the Republican party apart. He said that Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are “forces of evil” and “agents of intolerance.” Apparently Robertson, according to McCain, made recorded phone calls to voters, calling McCain’s ally Warren Rudman “a vicious bigot.” I think Robertson shouldn’t be calling the kettle black, especially if he’s associated with Falwell, a man who accused the Teletubbies of being (subliminally) gay. We’re all essentially bigots at one time or another. According to Webster’s Dictionary, anyone who “holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed or opinion” is a bigot. We all have our own illusions. Reality tells us that every winning candidate in every presidential election since 1972 has been backed by Catholics. Catholics also switch parties from time to time, and polls show that no single issue unites them. I don’t understand; how can a political party be pulled apart by their religious preferences? We are citizens of a country, fortunate enough to have wrested from the arms of tyrants, the fruits of liberty. And we enjoy these benefits every day. Many have died to obtain and maintain them. It took courage and hope to fight for our freedom. We can choose our own leaders. Many people in this world can only dream of the chance. Sadly and pitifully, we usually choose not to vote because it won’t make a difference, or we vote for a particular candidate because we like the way he looks and sounds, without poking through to get to what’s really there. Madeline Albright was recently egged at a university in the Czech Republic for telling the audience that “freedom requires financial sacrifice.” This cold declaration comes from the head of our State Department. To her, freedom comes from paper and ink, not heart and soul. The Czech Republic’s current president, Vaclav Havel, is actually encouraging Albright to be his successor.This world has a lot of problems on its plate. We can’t expect to solve them by voting for the pretty, empty candidate. We must remain informed now, not during the elections. We must tell the leaders what we want all the time, or they will take even more liberties from us. The truth is already hard enough to get out of the politicians. Do we want to lose sight of our dreams too? If our future is decided by the work of politicians, shouldn’t we care? Shouldn’t we want to know these people before we trust them? I’m betting that we would all be better off if we followed Emerson’s advice. Don’t lose sight of your dreams and what you want for this country. You can “eat the good of the land” now, but don’t expect it to always be this good without striving or holding your government to some sort of ideal. Remember, anything worth having is worth fighting for. Don’t listen to Albright. We can’t afford her price for freedom.
Valerie Howland is a senior English and psychology major from Conneaut, Ohio.