Wikileaks
The role of government is easily debatable, and brings out the worst as we struggle to express our personal understanding of how our government can best represent us. In the end, we all want the same. We want prosperity. We want survival; we want our quality of life, if not to improve then to stay the same. We want to see those we love taken care of. We want to be free from struggle.
The idea of a corrupt politician or a corrupt government does not come as a new idea to anyone. We are not shocked if a friend or colleague presents the idea of corruption. We have always accepted that our elected politicians and our government were less than scrupulous behind closed doors. We accepted that they would look out for us, and they would take for themselves. If this balance was upset, we as a people have demanded justice, and occasionally we have seen justice.
Until now we were at the mercy of this system. As a people, we had very little knowledge of the inner workings of these closed-door deals. We had no access, we had no insight into the exclusive club our leaders belonged to, and held onto. Wikileaks has presented an opportunity to see our government as it really is. It has presented our government with an opportunity too look at itself for how it acts, for what it does, for it to be held accountable. This is an opportunity for our country to be a leader. To be the origin of change.
This accountability we would demand of any business, any friendship, relationship, partner, or family. This isn’t a culture war, this is a war for the very future which will define us. A future which will define whether our children will be free to love as they want to love, to dance how they want to dance, to travel and learn freely. Please don’t watch this sitting down. You never know when the rights that you hold dearest could end up threatened, and if you’re not willing to stand up for the rights of all, there will be no one left to stand up when your time comes.
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!
-Robert Burns
