The Dangers of Growing Tired

Just a few days ago we as a people celebrated our nation’s independence from tyranny.  That happened only two hundred and forty-three years ago—a very short time in the scheme of things.  Democracy is not an easy road.  There are many twists and turns, obstacles and road blocks.  Democracy requires the participation of a committed and educated people who “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”  Without that kind of “mutual” dedication, that kind of commitment, a democracy cannot endure.  History tells us this is so.

The city of Athens lived under a radically democratic government from 508 BC to 322 BC.  It endured for only 186 years.  In those years the people governed themselves—there was no legislative representation—the people debated and voted on all the issues.  They had checks and balances and despite its moments of imprudence, injustice, and indecision, it was a remarkable experiment.  But it only lasted for 186 years—and then the people became tired, lost the vision and without a vision (a dream, an understanding, a commitment) the people perish.

I think it was Winston Churchill who wrote something to the effect that the test of a nation is what it can do when it is tired.  Are we in our American democracy so tired, fatigued, exhausted, weary, and drained that we no longer care about those democratic ideals set down in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?  Are we content with lies, people-bashing, arrogance, and division?  The test for America today is what we can do as a “tired” people.  Have we decided against the truth and caved in?   Alfred the Great warned, “Power is never a good, except he be good that has it.”

One of the biggest dangers at the moment besides what seems to be our “tiredness” (which causes us to sleep through all that is eating away at our democracy) is the attempt to politicize our military.  We honor those who serve in uniform, but we also, with our founding fathers, worry about a “standing army,” especially one that becomes politicized.  In 1787, James Madison, (sometimes called the “Father” of our Constitution) warned the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on the dangers of a permanent army.  “A standing military force with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.”  

Let us not become so tired that we no longer care about the character, the behavior, and the honor of an “overgrown Executive!”

Brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore 

But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore 

Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave 

Some poor fainting struggling democracy, you may rescue you may save