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Robbie L. Rogers | Special to the Daily News

We expect our superiors to be greater than we are. How preposterous! Our elected and imposed leaders are simply a reflected mirror of ourselves from a different angle. We cry freedom for all while sitting complacent before the television refusing to vote on trash politicians. Proudly we once watched the young student in Tiananmen Square defiantly blocking an entire brigade of tanks poised to murder thousands of his countrymen.

What makes us think we have a patent on democracy? Smugly, we think we started it all. Emphatically we did not, it started the moment man became oppressed by a form of government. We are not the winners of freedom, the world of man is, and the world shall continue seeking freedom as long as there is one man in repression. We are simply inheritors of our circumstances.

This nation stands in a sea of do-nothing citizens and pork-barreled politicians. Sure its a form of democracy, but a degradated one. Democracy demands responsibility of its citizens but gets complacency and apathy from us instead.

Free enterprise is a partner to democracy and therefore an enemy to communism and socialism. They, the communist and socialist, say free enterprise corrupts man. However, it is free enterprise that the crumbling communist block seeks, not freedom nor democracy.

Greed, found in all levels of society, is only a symptom of the evil side of man. It does not govern and is not a result of free enterprise. Greed is a cancer, buried deeply within the system of man. Greed robs man of his freedom. It creates false needs for laws, laws solely based upon perpetuating certain sectors over others.

Narrow-minded regulatory laws often enslave us and free enterprise, creating powerful bureaucratic protectionist associations. Life never is as you like it, rather it is as you live it. Greed is in mankind, it did not come from freedom nor from free enterprise.

In stealing a penny or a pencil we are as guilty as those who steal millions, the only difference is in the opportunity. We individuals must begin to see ourselves as we are. Before our nation can begin to heal from the current state of moral decay, we too must realize we have a problem.

How well are we doing at changing? Not very well. Forty percent say they take supplies home from the office. What do we expect? We expect to be governed by politicians and bureaucrats who are different from us. However, only 3-5 percent of us believe our government always does the right thing. No form of government will become more righteous than the population that elects them.

Strangely enough, although we expect honesty from them, less than 20 percent of us believe them to be of high moral and ethical standard. Corrupt power, worse than greed itself, is a form of corruption all its own. It can be found in any government, club or job where power forces compliance.

This guest column is from Robbie L. Rogers, a resident of Santa Rosa Beach.

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GUEST COLUMN: Democracy doesn't always mean honesty - The Northwest Florida Daily News