A fair country? That’d be nice

Stephen Wetherell Hanna Greene County
Published: September 19, 2008

It would be wonderful to live in a nation where every parent can take a sick child to the doctor, where working people can support their families without living one paycheck from disaster and where leaders put the common good be-fore the interests of wealth and power.

It would be great to live in a republic where public officials don’t manipulate the people with fears, lies and scapegoats; where they are subject to the same laws, under the same Constitution, as other citizens; where belligerent, militaristic nationalism isn’t cloaked as patriotism, and where dissent is not equated with treason.

It would be terrific to live in a country where one group of people can’t impose their idea of morality on others, where medieval superstition isn’t presented as science and where faith isn’t used to demonize non-conformity.

I would like to live in a nation where greed has not become a virtue, where justice is not conditional and for sale and where the truth cannot be obscured by the endlessly repeated lie, a nation where trivialities like lipstick and flag pins don’t distract an informed electorate from the daunting issues that must be addressed if the people are to hold on to any hope for the future.

Oh, well, I can dream, can’t I?