Democracy vs. Republic

Dear editor:

Just returned from a trip and picked up a copy of Sunday’s American Press, which a neighbor of mine saved for me. It’s great to return home and be able to have the best laugh I have had in the longest time. It was hard to stop laughing while reading the letter from Mark Bordelon which commented about my letter dealing with the use
of many languages throughout our great country. He missed the obvious entire point of the letter and instead chose to accuse me of not understanding that our country is not a democracy, as I stated in my letter, but rather a republic. Shame on me.

Mr. Bordelon points out that according to the World Book Encyclopedia the “United States is the world’s outstanding example of a successful republic.” True as far as it goes. He also claims to have learned that “somewhere in between the third to the fifth grade.” Hope and wish he went further in both, for half an answer and half a research is worth exactly what you have…half a definition and half a truth.

If anyone would take the time to research both forms of government in something like the Merriam Webster Dictionary they would find that our government is both a republic and a democracy, and referring to it in either way is correct.

According to this respected research tool: “A Republic is a government having as chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president. A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers.” Yes, that’s us.

“A Democracy is a government by the people; especially: rule of the majority, a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. The absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.” Yup, that’s us too.

So here we are two things at once. But it doesn’t matter, because it works. And spending all that time and space on a letter to separate the two and wrongly trying to catch a mistake is an absolute waste.

The Beauty of Choice

While sitting in my favorite coffee shop the other morning I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation at the next table complaining about being asked to choose between English or Spanish on a telephone connection with a service company. The drivel and bigotry coming from these “gentlemen” was sickening and the lack of intelligence and knowledge of history of our country was obvious. If it was up to them we would all be one race, speak one language, have the same color hair and eyes and be as ignorant as they. I think the last country in recent history to think this way was Nazi Germany, and that didn’t do so well.

If it was up to them they probably would do away with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York because they show operas in Spanish, French, German, etc. Spanish speaking radio and TV stations would have to go off the air in Texas, Arizona and other states, French speaking stations in Louisiana would have to do the same, as would Italian stations in New York, German speaking stations in Wisconsin and Chinese language stations in California. Stores on the lower East Side of Manhattan would have to close because they conduct business in Yiddish, Italian restaurants in New York’s “Little Italy” would be in trouble and China Town in San Francisco would have to shutter close all their shops. And think of all the local newspapers nationwide that are printed in a multitude of languages. While we are at it, we better move the United Nations out of New York for it is a disaster of “foreign” languages.

This country, while populated mainly by English speakers was founded by a multitude of people from all over Europe. New York was originally owned by the Dutch (New Amsterdam), the Spanish founded Florida, the French Louisiana, and the Native Americans the whole darn place. I doubt very seriously that Christopher Columbus spoke any English, but rather his native Italian, and Ponce de Leon went looking for the Fountain of Youth in Florida while speaking Spanish.

But yet despite their language differences everyone eventually pulled together to found the greatest democracy in the history of the world. We are a country proud of its “melting pot” heritage and should make sure that the majority protects the rights of the minority, including a right of language choice. No one is in danger of losing their right to speak English by pressing #1 on their phone, but are rather observing the greatness and hospitality of our country by allowing the other guy to press #2 and speak Spanish. It truly is a “win-win” situation, and English (Americanized of course) will continue to be our country’s language.

If someone doesn’t like the beauty of “choice” let them choose to find an uninhabited island somewhere and take their fear and bigotry with them.. Then they can set their own rules.