What is Democracy?

Democracy, as interpreted in The American Heritage Dictionary

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives
2. The common people as the primary source of political power

Our president, George W. Bush, adamantly declares that every human being is born by nature desiring to live under such a system.  I tend to agree.  However, Mr. Bush becomes very upset when a country or a faction of people votes for a type of democracy (they're not all the same) or a leadership of which he disapproves.

Let me offer a case in point.  Do you not remember this past January when the Palestinian people shocked our U.S. leadership by voting for a terrorist riddled Hamas government in what even U.S. observers had to admit was a fair and above board election.  From what I have been able to glean from respected news analysts both on PBS and in various newspapers, the desperate, weary and subjugated Palestinians were voting for the lesser of two evils; either the continued brutal treatment by the Israeli occupiers of their land, or a new leadership that would in the midst of their misery give them the self respect of more effectively opposing an overwhelming military and political force supported by the U.S. for the past 58 years.

Is this to say common everyday Palestinians are choosing terrorists acts?  I would offer that they chose the democratic process that President Bush so adamantly espouses.  If we want to condemn terrorism, and I certainly do, tell me it is not terrorism to attempt to spread democracy in Iraq at the point of a gun with the resulting carnage and deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis as well as our coalition military forces.

Very largely in response to the horrors of the holocaust of World War 11 The United Nations in 1948 with strong support of the U.S. arbitrarily carved out a Jewish state on Palestinian land. Problem is the Palestinians had nothing to do with the holocaust.  They also had virtually no voice in the loss of their land.  Thus the horrors of terrorism continue to this day both in Israel-Palestine and around the world.

We already know George W.'s inconsistencies in his concept of democracy and-by his unwavering support of the manner in which Israel gained their statehood.  We also know his concept of democracy such as wire tapping and internet access without a warrant. 

Although we know he's not running this fall 2006, many of his ardent supporters in the county, state, U.S. congress and senate are running, so in the name of restoring true democracy let us send our message loud and clear.

Buz Cormany
Medina, OH