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I overheard them as they left the store: Requiring a mask is an attack on my freedom. It was fairly early in the pandemic, and it was my first curbside pick-up at the lumberyard. They walked by my car as I negotiated this new way of shopping. I was wearing a mask.

Immediately, I thought of my partner. For nearly 20 years, she was the faculty adviser for a campus Amnesty International student group. Amnesty International (AI) is the human rights organization supporting prisoners of conscience: people imprisoned for exercising their fundamental human rights.

There are many ways to think about freedom, but an international human rights perspective grounds your thoughts in the realities of freedoms denied. Members of Amnesty engage in the rituals of human rights work with the humblest of weapons: pen, paper, and emails.

Over many decades, with many friends, we have written thousands of letters and emails to different governments requesting respect for basic human rights. So many people in so many nations are denied fundamental freedoms and access to justice.

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The Pledge of Allegiance has had its controversies in recent years, but freedom and justice for all is an important phrase to repeat to yourself. It should be the worlds mantra. But it is challenging to mix freedom and justice in a way that works for all citizens. That is a dilemma for democracy too much freedom eats away at justice, and too much justice eats away at freedom.

When Europe was divided by a wall, we saw incredible levels of freedom on one side of the wall and an eerie sense of justice on the other. It has not been easy for Europe since that wall came down, and there are now worrisome trends from England to Poland.

Democratic processes that endure are hard to create and maintain. Making them work requires constant work and involvement. Democracies do not tolerate idleness or short attention spans. The hard work of successfully blending freedom and justice greets a democracy every morning. That is why history provides so few examples. Historically, some of the cultures that developed and celebrated democratic principles were slave-based economies. Think Thomas Jefferson.

It appears this century provides a new context for exploring these problematic issues. What does it mean to be free? How do we pursue just resolutions in a messy world? What is democracy in the 21st century?

Democratic processes are dependent upon this elusive blend of freedom and justice. When democratic processes emerge, they fumble and swing from one extreme to another freedom impinging on justice, justice impinging on freedom. In a sense, every democracy carries the seeds of an ongoing civil war.

Separating a democracy into two camps is a formula for disaster. Imagine, for a moment, that you are making a quick, simple salad dressing. You pour a good measure of vinegar into a jar. Then you add a slightly larger amount of oil. Left alone, they separate into two distinct layers. To become a successful dressing for your salad, you must put a lid on the jar and shake vigorously to blend the two.

Democracy is the vigorous shaking that prevents these two principles from separating and following their separate paths. Democracy is the daily process of blending freedom and justice within our lives and the lives of those we encounter.

Put differently: Democracy is the constant work of keeping freedom and justice on the same path.

That is why my partner and I brought together interested students to discuss human rights issues for nearly 20 years. We were shaking the jar.

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For many young people, the simple fact that democratic processes are dependent upon such an elusive blend and balance of values and responsibilities is a revelation. Consumer societies tend to create people who sit and watch rather than people who stand and do. Consumerism creates a world of simple, well-defined transactions rather than a world of listening and then formulating well-reasoned responses and ongoing interactions.

Democracy is hard work.

But there is a necessary third ingredient. Everyone who makes salad dressing from scratch knows our vinegar and oil mix needs one more component. After pouring together the vinegar and oil, add a small amount of water. Then vigorously shake the jar. That little bit of water helps the vinegar and oil blend while slightly muting the vinegar.

Keith Luebke

Compassion is at the heart of Eastern religions and philosophies. As the rift between East and West widens, a conversation about the role compassion plays in creating the sort of democracies we envision might be useful: consider the Easts thoughts about compassion and the Wests focus on balancing freedom and justice. Then consider how often we fail to live up to our aspirations East and West.

The world is in desperate need of conversations that rise above those that came before. Every past conversation matters, but we need new ones.

Rather than getting angry with the people who wont wear masks, maybe we should talk to them. Try to engage with them, not necessarily about not wearing a mask. Ask them if they are stressed or angry. Find the source of their unwillingness to wear a mask. Put yourself in their shoes. Demonstrate compassion. Then ask them to please wear a mask.

Scolding will get us nowhere.

Their souls are simply leaning too far into a perception of freedom inconsistent with our perceptions of justice and community. Be gentle. At some point, they may need to remind some of us that we are leaning too far towards justice. Remember this delicate balancing act and remember the frailty inherent to democratic processes.

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If we start a conversation, there might be an opportunity to remind our mask-less friends of those who need and deserve fundamental freedoms. Those unjustly imprisoned, confined, and tortured should never be left to fend for themselves. Carry them into your thoughts, actions, and discussions. Their lives remind us that people can be picked up, thrown into a dark van, and tossed into a cell for no reason. Could that ever happen in your community?

The basis of our efforts should always start from this point: the never-ending struggle of communities to blend freedom and justice with a dash of compassion.

Keep shaking things up. Mix these vital conversations and thoughts into your daily life.

But in the short term: Please wear a mask, and converse with your fellow citizens while 6 feet apart.

KeithLuebkerecently retired from teaching nonprofit leadership courses and has several decades of experience directing nonprofit organizations.

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The never-ending struggle: blending freedom and justice, with a dash of compassion - MinnPost

The sole difference, they say, and its a big one, they grant, is the gravity of his rolehes the president not of the Trump Organization but of the United States of Americaand whats at stake: the health and sustenance of the countrys democracy.

The only thing that has changed is that hes doing it on the world stage, and it is enhanced by the powers and the platform that the presidency offers, biographer Tim OBrien told me. We dont need to believe now that theres anything Donald Trump wont do to preserve his own sense of himself. And for the history books alone, certain incidents are worth cataloging, and this is one of them. Hes willing to put democracy on the block.

But Trump never has altered his fundamental M.O. to match the scale of the moment. Hes always placed his own interests first, say those who know him, whether its a business deal or a matter of state.

This is all very consistent with the man I worked with 30 years ago, Bruce Nobles, the former president of the Trump Shuttle, told me. Hes very competitive and wants to always win, and if he thinks he cant win, then by definition there must be something wrong with the system, because otherwise, of course, he would win, Nobles said. He believes that, if for some reason he doesnt get what he wants, its not his faultits some other corrupt system thats keeping that from happening.

Back in 1990, when he owed his bank lenders billions of dollars, Trump blamed the overall economic downturn instead of acknowledging the litany of his own reckless decisions, saying, OK, well, you run the building, you run the debt, you run the airline, you run the Plaza, former Trump publicist Alan Marcus told me. And he made sure that his plight was every bit their plight, in a sense faulting the system, then distorting the systemthen (ab)using the system to survive. Hed say, Hey, if I fail, everybody fails, said Marcus.

When he was deeply indebted with bank loans he couldnt repay, added OBrien, the biographer, he basically said that he would just blow up the banks and leave them hanging and walk away from his debtswhen they needed him to play ball, so they could rationally dispose of the properties he used to control. And once he realized that they needed his involvement, he began playing with firelike all 7-year-olds do.

Steven Perskie, the chairman of New Jerseys Casino Control Commission from 1990 to 1994, on Thursday recalled the instance in December 1990 in which Trumps father spent more than $3 million on casino chips he didnt usean illegal loan that helped his beleaguered son make a debt payment that was due.

It doesnt have remotely the profile and political impact of the tweet this morning, which is a direct attack on our system of government, Perskie told me. But still, he said: The connection, or the tie, if you will, is simply his instinctive ability to reinvent reality.

Reinventing reality in that case meant an assault on the states regulatory infrastructureand in this case means sowing doubt about the trustworthiness of the nations voting system.

Every failure hes ever had, OBrien told me, he has blamed it on outside forces.

Only now, of course, Trump is one of the most powerful people on the planet, and one of the most consequential presidents ever, and what hes assailing is not the banks or Atlantic City.

Its democracy, OBrien said.

You have to have empathy to be bothered by collateral damage. And he is devoid of empathy. He never thinks about collateral damage. He just thinks about how cool the mushroom clouds will look.

At least on Thursday, though, the response on Capitol Hill and around the political world seemed to suggest that Election Daywhich the Constitution empowers Congress to set and therefore can be changed only by Congressis one pillar of democracy this norm-eviscerating president wont be able to gut. Hed been edging toward the idea of postponing or poisoning this falls election, biographer Gwenda Blair told me, but now hes going full speed ahead. Republicans, from Mitch McConnell on down, however, said in essence stop right there.

But the people whove known and watched Trumpnot for five years but parts of five decadessay one thing is for sure. He will not. As predictable as Tuesdays tweet might have been given his patterns of behavior in the past, it also could and should be seen, they said, as a preview of whats to come these next 96 days and for who knows how long after that.

Hes going to keep the rhetoric up, former Trump casino executive Jack ODonnell told me. Hes going to do it for the next three months, and hes going to talk about this rigged election and this fraudulent election. Because he cant lose in his mind. And this is how hes going to cover in case he does.

See the original post here:
Hes Willing to Put Democracy on the Block - POLITICO

HAMILTON

By Lee H. Hamilton

Amid all the troubles occupying our attention, one of the more worrisome is also one of the least visible. It is the loss of public faith in the effectiveness of our representative democracy.

While most state and local governments - and certain federal agencies - have maintained public support during the pandemic, concern over our system as a whole is palpable: that it has trouble responding to the country's needs, is resistant to reform as society evolves and continues to perpetuate inequality, social immobility and basic unfairness when it comes to creating more opportunity, liberty and justice for all.

These deficiencies corrode our unity and effectiveness as a nation. Americans increasingly divide themselves into different, often warring, political and cultural camps. Instead of working to create one out of many, they sort themselves into like-minded communities. They narrow, rather than expand, their sources of news and information, seeking those that reinforce their views. These days, we often live in different worlds from one another.

Politicians have played a significant role in this. Some, including the president, are bent on stoking division. Many play to their parties' bases. And some, at both the state and federal level, do their best to narrow the public support on which government rests by making it difficult for everyone who's entitled to vote to cast an actual ballot.

To be sure, there are plenty of efforts in many communities to work against these trends, to expand participation and build connections and to decrease division. Still, the challenge we face as a nation is to revitalize our democracy and its institutions. We need to strengthen representative democracy by restoring the effectiveness of government, rebuild Congress as a functional, co-equal branch of the federal government and restore confidence in our institutions, public and private.

How do we do this? Calls for greater public participation and involvement are on target but not enough. While I'm always encouraged by political leaders who seek to involve the public and by civic groups that try to enhance and encourage citizen participation, I believe we're at the point where we need to repair our frayed institutions and push back against the forces that divide us.

We are, after all, the United States. Our name expresses an ideal. So, for that matter, does the course of our history, which over time has trended toward expanding inclusivity and opportunity for all. One place to start is to appreciate our history and take inspiration from that history: to recognize where we've fallen short, but also to highlight the remarkable progress we've made and the efforts of committed citizens that made it possible.

We also need to recognize that divisiveness weakens us and that efforts to reknit American society are now urgently important.

To that end, proposals for a year of national service strike me as particularly welcome. This would be expensive, but focusing young Americans on a year of shared endeavor with others from vastly different backgrounds - in the military, in AmeriCorps, in internships or public-service opportunities - would help meet many needs and be well worth the expense.

We also need to up our game as ordinary citizens and beat back the drivers of divisiveness and polarization as we work to strengthen our communities.

Among other things, this means making an effort to seek out alternative points of view in the media and paying attention to objective, factual reporting. It means supporting measures that bring us together, such as bringing young people from all backgrounds and perspectives to work side by side in projects for the public good. And it means being thoughtful about our engagement: voting for candidates focused on pulling us together and working for the common good and putting our time and effort into causes that bring us together rather than pull us apart.

In short, we must decide what we can do in the voting booth and in our own neighborhoods and communities to revitalize our representative democracy. Our aim is to make our communities and our country better places to live: more creative, inclusive and welcoming. The answer lies not in the stars but with all of us.

Lee Hamilton is a senior adviser for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a Distinguished Scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; and a Professor of Practice at the IU O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

Originally posted here:
Opinion: All of us need to help revitalize our democracy - Sumter Item

Lee Teng-hui Ph.D. 68, the former president of Taiwan who led the islands transformation out of authoritarian rule and ushered in democracy, died Thursday in Taipei. He was 97.

Lee, who was the first president to be elected by popular vote and the first native Taiwanese president, received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell before joining the Nationalist Party as its agricultural minister. From then, his political career took off as he became mayor of Taipei, the capital, and the provincial governor of Taiwan.

He was appointed the vice president in 1984 by President Chiang Ching-kuo a departure from the usual appointment of mainland Chinese people and a gesture toward the native Taiwanese. When Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1988 of a heart attack, Lee succeeded him.

Lee had first entered politics during the dictatorial Nationalist Party regimes of Chiang Ching-kuo and his father Chiang Kai-shek a period of martial law and brutality. During the February 28 incident in 1947, when Chiang Kai-sheks troops open-fired on street protesters and killed 28,000, Lee joined the protests.

He then renounced Marxism and joined the Nationalist Party, but as president he publicly rebuked the February 28 massacres and dismantled the dictatorship.

Throughout Lees 12-year tenure as president, he consistently angered the Beijing government, insisting on Taiwans sovereignty. The United States ended up torn by Lees stance, as it sought to improve relations with Beijing and deter Chinas military presence on the island.

In 1992, The New York Times called Taiwan the most democratic society in the Chinese-speaking world. And in 1996, Taiwan held its first open presidential election and elected Lee outright.

Lees ties to the U.S. through two academic stays a masters degree in agricultural economics from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. at Cornell also concerned the Beijing government.

Courtesy of Cornell University

Lee visiting Cornell in 1995.

In 1995, Lee visited the U.S. for a Cornell reunion, where he delivered the annual reunion Olin Lecture to an audience of about 3,000. During his speech, he spoke of reliving fond memories at Cornell, the prevailing American democracy, Taiwanese popular sovereignty and U.S.-Taiwan relations.

Lees visit, which the Beijing government openly opposed, led China to accuse the U.S. and Taiwan of collusion, resulting in a military demonstration that strained U.S.-China relations.

Lee remained involved with his alma mater. In 2001, he visited again to see his granddaughter, who was attending Cornell. Although his granddaughters name was not known to the public, she gave one interview to The Sun while at Cornell.

The 2001 visit was again a controversial one, marked by a Ho Plaza rally involving the Chinese Students and Scholars Association and hundreds of activists from as far away as Purdue University and Harvard University.

History proved that Lee is most interested in taking advantage of Cornell Universitys fame for the purpose of his political propaganda, read a letter presented at the rally, intended to protest Lees separatist ideas and efforts, as well as his visit to Cornell.

We dont believe this is a private visit because after Lees retirement he has still tried to promote separatist ideas wherever he is, Rony Chen grad, spokesperson for CSSA, told The Sun at the time.

During that visit, the University announced the establishment of the Lee Teng-hui Institute for scientific research. At the announcement, Lee said he hoped the research at the institute would develop not only new, but ethical technologies, ones that benefit world peace and further human progress.

The Lee Teng-hui Institute was to be located in the new Duffield Hall. In honor of Lee, a consortium of companies in Taiwan made a substantial financial contribution toward the construction of the facility and to support instructional and research programs of the college.

This was the second of Lees large donations to his alma mater: A 1994 donation of $2.5 million presented anonymously by friends of Lee in Taiwan endowed the Lee Teng-hui Professorship of World Affairs.

Lee is not the only Cornellian to ever hold Taiwans highest office: Current President Tsai Ing-wen LL.M. 80 was elected in 2016.

Tsai, Taiwans first woman president, served as Lees national security adviser and participated in negotiations for Taiwans membership into the World Trade Organization in the 1990s. He supported her in her bid for president in 2012, when she ultimately lost to the Nationalists Ma Ying-jeou.

The president believes that former President Lees contribution to Taiwans democratic journey is irreplaceable and his death is a great loss to the country, Tsais office said in a statement.

Read the original here:
Former Taiwanese President and 'Father of Democracy' Lee Teng-hui Ph.D. '68 Dies at 97 - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Amid all the troubles occupying our attention, one of the more worrisome is also one of the least visible. It is the loss of public faith in the effectiveness of our representative democracy.

While most state and local governmentsand certain federal agencieshave maintained public support during the pandemic, concern over our system as a whole is palpable: that it has trouble responding to the countrys needs, is resistant to reform as society evolves, and continues to perpetuate inequality, social immobility, and basic unfairness when it comes to creating more opportunity, liberty, and justice for all.

These deficiencies corrode our unity and effectiveness as a nation. Americans increasingly divide themselves into different, often warring, political and cultural camps. Instead of working to create one out of many, they sort themselves into like-minded communities. They narrow, rather than expand, their sources of news and information, seeking those that reinforce their views. These days, we often live in different worlds from one another.

Politicians have played a significant role in this. Some, including the President, are bent on stoking division. Many play to their parties bases. And some, at both the state and federal level, do their best to narrow the public support on which government rests by making it difficult for everyone whos entitled to vote to cast an actual ballot.

To be sure, there are plenty of efforts in many communities to work against these trends, to expand participation and build connections, and to decrease division. Still, the challenge we face as a nation is to revitalize our democracy and its institutions. We need to strengthen representative democracy by restoring the effectiveness of government, rebuild Congress as a functional, co-equal branch of the federal government, and restore confidence in our institutions, public and private.

How do we do this? Calls for greater public participation and involvement are on target, but not enough. While Im always encouraged by political leaders who seek to involve the public and by civic groups that try to enhance and encourage citizen participation, I believe were at the point where we need to repair our frayed institutions and push back against the forces that divide us.

We are, after all, the United States. Our name expresses an ideal. So, for that matter, does the course of our history, which over time has trended toward expanding inclusivity and opportunity for all. One place to start is to appreciate our history and take inspiration from that history: to recognize where weve fallen short, but also to highlight the remarkable progress weve made and the efforts of committed citizens that made it possible.

We also need to recognize that divisiveness weakens us, and that efforts to reknit American society are now urgently important.

To that end, proposals for a year of national service strike me as particularly welcome. This would be expensive but focusing young Americans on a year of shared endeavor with others from vastly different backgroundsin the military, in AmeriCorps, in internships or public-service opportunitieswould help meet many needs and be well worth the expense.

We also need to up our game as ordinary citizens and beat back the drivers of divisiveness and polarization as we work to strengthen our communities.

Among other things, this means making an effort to seek out alternative points of view in the media and paying attention to objective, factual reporting. It means supporting measures that bring us together, such as bringing young people from all backgrounds and perspectives to work side by side in projects for the public good. And it means being thoughtful about our engagement: voting for candidates focused on pulling us together and working for the common good and putting our time and effort into causes that bring us together rather than pull us apart.

In short, we must decide what we can do in the voting booth and in our own neighborhoods and communities to revitalize our representative democracy. Our aim is to make our communities and our country better places to live: more creative, inclusive, and welcoming. The answer lies not in the stars, but with all of us.

Lee Hamilton is a Senior Advisor for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a Distinguished Scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies; and a Professor of Practice at the IU ONeill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

Original post:
All of us need to help revitalize our democracy - Herald Review