During the eighteenth century, a Scottish history professor from the University
 of Edinborough had this to say about the collapse of the Athenian Republic, 
2,000 or more years ago.  Not being able to quote verbatim, this is the crux of
 what the good professor had to say:  A democracy is always temporary in nature; 
it simply cannot survive as a permanent form of government.  It will continue to 
exist until its followers discover that they can decree themselves generous benefits 
from their public treasury. From that moment on, they will always select their 
government representatives from those who promise them the most. Eventually it 
will lead to a collapse because of uncontrolled fiscal policies, after which it 
will fall back under central rule again.  In summary: Bondage fosters spiritual 
faith 

Spiritual faith fosters great courage
Courage fosters liberty
Liberty fosters abundance
Abundance fosters complacency
Complacency fosters apathy
Apathy fosters dependency
Dependency fosters a return to bondage

Has a kind of familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

I suppose if we were to look at ourselves from that Scottish professor's perspective,
 we might place ourselves between abundance and apathy. And most likely, the 
reason being that most of the news on our airways lately has been continuously 
inundated with the possibility of doom and gloom.  From 911 to the war on terror 
and continuing on through Afghanistan to the war on Iraq and our country's futile 
search for weapons of mass destruction, many of us are waking up wondering what 
the future has in store for us. In fact, it would almost seem that our present-day 
administration has been using "fear" as a political tool. I certainly hope not.  
No, dear friends. George Orwell's "1984" has come and gone and Aldous Huxley's 
"Brave New World" is being replaced with a run on "same sex marriages." No doubt, 
we're going to see a lot more before Old Mother Earth curls up and dies, but if 
it does, it most certainly won't be because democracy has failed.

To begin with, when that eighteenth century professor from the University of 
Edinborough was downloading democracy, our United States of America was just 
coming on board. What's more, if you were living in America and you had a family 
in England, it would take months for a letter to reach you from there.  Those 
old time ships weren't breaking any speed records in the eighteenth century.  
And as this writing further confirms, it's taken over 200 years for me to become 
aware of what that old professor said about democracy.

Technology, in fact, has brought our old world closer together. For instance, 
we're only a phone call away from where we're at to the furthest point on our 
planet. Furthermore, at least half of our civilized world today, which is twenty 
times larger than the one that existed 200 years ago, is democratically governed 
or on the road to democratization. This also includes our newest Republic of Armenia.

As for our present-day democratic government, they have until November 2, 2004, 
to get our ship of state on course, and I certainly hope they do. But if they don't, 
all we have to do is vote them out of office without bloodshed. This is what our 
democracy is all about -- something that the old professor of two centuries past,
 couldn't even begin to imagine. And let us always remember, regardless of who 
the majority finally votes for this November, we will still go on being the greatest 
country in the world. After all, this is ". . .the land of the free and the home of
 the brave."

Joseph Vosbikian