IT'S OUR TURN TO FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY

There is an objective truth out there and since the time the first person carved images of what he saw in his daily travels into wet clay, through the invention of the printing press, right up to today, it has always been people's desire to know it that has fueled the growth of the news media in one form or another.

The founders of this country enshrined the concept of freedom of the press in the constitution because they knew how vital a free press, on an unfettered quest for objective truth, is to a democracy where presumably (slavery and women aside) everyone’s vote was to be accorded equal weight. They envisioned a robust press that would take on the job of finding out and reporting on the issues of the day so that people could then make informed decisions about the issues that affect their futures.

Trust was always the currency that the news media traded on. It was that bond with the people that gave them their legitimacy and allowed them to flourish.

Traditionally, those outlets that could be trusted to deliver accurate news in a timely fashion were rewarded with the most readers or listeners or viewers. The New York Times motto of “all the news that’s fit to print” implies that while there are many things that can be printed, presumably those without basis in fact should not be unless clearly stated to be opinion.

CBS News was, for decades, the most trusted source of television news because Americans trusted people like Ed Murrow and later Walter Cronkite, who came to be known as “the most trusted man in America”, to give it to them straight.

Of course not every one who is in the media has the same passion for the concept of objective verifiable truth as these venerable outlets and their brethren. William Randolph Hurst and the most current purveyor and enabler of misinformation Rupert Murdoch immediately come to mind. Their brand of journalism distorts the truth and thus reality. It plays upon the fears of the American people often created by its very lies. It is inherently dangerous to democracy. It is dangerous to America because it seeks to divide us as a people and thus must be considered our enemy. Cynically, it plays upon these divisions for profit, not necessarily because it believes all that it puts out there.

There are no shortcuts in a Democracy. Our Democracy is a living thing. It has never been guaranteed to us. We have always had to fight for it. The battlefields of the world attest to that. We always boast that we provide our troops with the finest equipment to get the job done. Well, the enemy is ignorance and intolerance and fear and those such as Glenn Beck & Rush Limbaugh who perpetrate it.

As a nation we have to fight this enemy or it will surely bring us down. Our citizens and our children are our troops in this fight. We must equip them with the finest, most effective weapon of mass destruction ever devised, an education.

An educated person is one who has been taught how to think critically and independently. Using those skills an educated person is in a much better position to discern objective truth and make an informed decision.

It is our moral responsibility to arm our troops. We must provide our troops with the night vision and body armor of a good education to allow them to see through the darkness and protect them from becoming casualties of the explosions of misinformation and outright lies that are being visited upon them by the enemies of Democracy.

Only an educated citizenry can defend America against its enemies and cause the Glenn Beck’s of this world to fall of their own weight back into the darkness where they exist and thrive.

Support our troops, educate America.

Its our turn to fight for Democracy.