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A Personal Letter About Democracy

By J. Barlow Herget
Published: Sep. 24, 2001

RALEIGH - If you will indulge me, I’m going to take off my essayist’s tie, lay aside my research and simply write you a personal letter this week.

The September 11 terrorist attacks have me thinking about this wonderful country of ours and why I am so passionate about its history and promise. I am a child of World War II and I’m sure that colors my hopes and fears about America.

My father, Phil Herget, volunteered Dec. 8, 1941, and was one of the thousands who fought on the Normandy beaches and then France and finally Germany. I remember "playing war" with my older brother, battling Nazis in my grandmother's backyard.

I sang our national hymns, "My Country ‘Tis of Thee," "American the Beautiful," "The Star Spangled Banner" in the basement auditorium of Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in Paragould, Ark. I spent part of my childhood on military bases in Texas, Honolulu, and Arlington, Va. I learned to drive a car on the quiet, empty roads of Arlington Cemetery.

My dad and mom, Mary Esther Herget, are both from small towns in Arkansas, and they taught me, my brothers and sisters about democracy. I learned that in America, all people are created equal. That America stands for peace. For freedom to say what you want, to worship who you want. For justice. For fair play. For offering a helping hand in hard times.

More importantly, my parents lived these verities in their everyday lives for us all to see. They, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my elementary and Sunday School teachers embodied the America that I love.

As I grew older, I realized that America didn't always live up to these ideals. Segregation, for instance, was a way of life in the South and yet, it stood against everything that our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, stood for.

When you’re young and bright-eyed, it’s a shock to learn these "real world" facts. The answers I was given fell short. How many times have you heard the phrase, "Well, that1s just the way things are," when someone tries to explain a wrong or injustice?

But that’s the great and wonderful thing about America -- we the people can change the way things are! Abraham Lincoln did it at a terrible cost in the Civil War. Theodore Roosevelt did it when he dismantled the great moneyed trusts. Franklin Roosevelt did it when he lifted us out of the Great Depression and fought a World War on two fronts. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower did it when they, contrary to history, rebuilt their vanquished, evil enemies. And Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson did it with the Civil Rights Revolution.

We can do these remarkable things because we believe in a government that gives everyone a chance to be part of that government. Of the people, by the people, for the people. It’s not a new idea; the ancient Greeks gave democracy its name. It is grounded on the very practical philosophy that I and you and not some king or despot know what's best for us.

I believe that everyone is entitled (as a birthright) to have a vote in his or her own fortunes and futures. That’s why I’m what the politicians call an Atomic Voter (even in the event of an atomic attack, I will go to the polls). I may not always get it right, but I have a blood-belief in my -- and your -- right to vote.

I worry about how money plays too big a part in our democracy today and that is why I write about it in these columns. But we will make the necessary changes; we will not and should not change our basic democratic principles.

That is what the outlaw, foreign Muslim terrorists who attacked us this month want us to do. They are at war against my right to vote and my democracy. They hate it. And I cannot change their minds. And that is why I will go to war with my fellow Americans to fight them.

Ol’ Tom Paine told us a long time ago when our country was in another fight, these are the times that try men’s souls. They are indeed.

I end this letter with a friendly reminder. As a democracy, one that is now threatened by undemocratic, suicidal enemies, I want you to remember your democratic responsibilities and the upcoming local elections.

After all, what touches our everyday lives more than our City Halls and school boards?

Go vote. Make democracy work.