Dreams and reality
We all have dreams. Dreams are imaginary episodes that we wish were our real life story.
We have an American dream. In it we are at peace by our fireside in our comfortable homes with our happy families. Our neighbors are friendly and would rush to our aid if we needed them. We would harm no one and no one would harm us. We would understand that others also have dreams and we applaud them - whether they are Mexican, Middle Eastern, African, members of other cultures and religions. We want to be their friends.
And then, of course, there is reality. Reality is war; war is not peace. War is not security. The existence of war is instead the absence of peace, and security, and understanding, and friendship.
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It is time again for American elections - and time to try to regain our dreams. It is time for all of us - Independents, Republicans and Democrats - to choose the people from whom we will select our next leaders. They will direct our efforts to achieve our future dreams.
We want, once again, to be the people who wear the white hats - the good guys, the ones who stand for the rule of law and against mob rule or hysterical fear or corrupt officials. We want the Gary Cooper character, the Jimmy Stewart, the Henry Fonda's who stand up to the mob when we are afraid, or when we ourselves are that mob.
Just as a child wants his parents to gently tell him what his boundaries are, we want leaders who will show us how to be the best of the noble savages, occupying the highest ground of decency and honor and integrity. That is our dream.
We have had a bad time of it lately. We were attacked by people who hate Americans in particular - not because we are Christians or Jews but because we are Americans. They had their reasons for hating us - which we can't or refuse to understand. We went to war - to make peace. To gain security. To eradicate people who hate us. We have no peace, no security, much fear, and little chance of eradicating people who hate us because they are multiplying faster than our war machines can kill them. In an unusually UN-American fashion, we have abandoned our high ground - torturing captured people, invading the privacy of our own neighbors and friends as if they were combatants, justifying government evils that the colonists condemned when done by British King George because we suddenly find it necessary to overturn our two centuries of trust in American ideals. Pre-emptive war - for example - which has been supported by a majority of Americans of every political stripe war always a nightmare for Americans.
The office-seekers are all beginning their parade now. Most of the time they are pandering - to the gays or anti-gays, to the pro-life or pro-choice, to the Hispanic and Black or the anti-Hispanic, anti-Black, to those who see glory in war or those who see serenity in peace, to those who could put God in charge of America or those who want God to let Americans make a morality-neutral utopia.
We want a leader who calls us to live up to our greatness - an Eisenhower, a JFK. Who steers us away from mistakes of judgment, is strong for us in the face of the threats, and holds us to our highest standards.
We don't need someone who promises "bread and circuses" as in ancient Rome. Tax cuts are nice but they are not the American dream. We know we have to pay for whatever services our government delivers. There is no free lunch, even when our grandchildren pick up the tab.
We need someone honest enough to say so. Someone American enough to condemn torture of enemy combatants, wholesale spying on innocent citizens; someone willing to restate the American ideal of never-starting a war unless previously attacked.
We all have dreams. They are peaceful dreams. We want no nightmares. We have to choose leaders who will guide us to those dreams, not follow us into scary nightmares of our own making.
Edward Golla
Springettsbury Township
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