As we gather in Southern Missouri to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ll be thankful for many blessings. The right to petition our government, however, is one that might not come up at the table before dinner.
Even if it falls in line behind our beloved family and friends, our health and our well-being, we should be thankful that our Founders were so thoughtful to include the right to petition our government in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That seemingly small protection holds a big key to our citizens’ democracy; every American has the right to lobby for laws that they feel are necessary and just.
The grassroots spirit is not only essential to responsive and responsible government, it is also the basic right that allows us to hold meaningful public debate on important issues. Most recently, on issues like health care, cap-and-trade and Second Amendment rights, public outcry has influenced the direction of debate in Congress. Civil discourse is a cornerstone of debate, whether that debate takes place in Washington, D.C., or in southern Missouri. (And, in fact, it is the debate in southern Missouri that holds far more promise of settling many of these issues in commonsense ways!)
Now, I would never suggest that you discuss politics over your Thanksgiving table, but staying informed is a basic civic duty along with voting and volunteering. So is being aware of the views of those who disagree with us and the arguments behind other Americans’ strong feelings. Without that public debate, we would have a weaker democracy.
So, too, would our democracy weaken if we lacked the means of getting news and multiple points of view out in newspapers, over the airwaves, and on the Internet. A policy like the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which would allow the federal government to mandate the dissemination of specific news and views through the media, certainly runs counter to this goal. An interested, engaged, intelligent electorate creates a market on its own for timely, unbiased reporting and a range of views on it.
Armed with that information, it becomes our responsibility to give voice to our concerns. You can write to your elected representatives, you can organize your like-minded friends and neighbors, and you can even sue the federal government. These are long-upheld protections that form the foundation for our freedoms – not taking advantage of them assures you a place in the “silent majority” known only for not taking advantage of this right.
In other countries all over the world, dictatorial governments are not accountable to the citizenry. Not only is the expression of the people’s different views in those places not helpful, it can also result in imprisonment and persecution. Earlier this month, we marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and thanked the dedicated Americans in uniform whose unflinching resolve brought the wall down. Behind that Iron Curtain was a whole society without the benefit of the right to petition government as well as millions of people who died in the effort to obtain that right for their children and grandchildren.
So, on our American Thanksgiving, many of us will give thanks for living in America and for our representative system of government. We should also be mindful of our right to petition that government, and we should take advantage of that right whenever we can.
