21012: Walton: RE: 20999: Esser: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Walton, Robert" <robert.walton3@us.army.mil>

For more than a century, Haiti has been ruled by a succession of strong-arm
mobs and "maximum leaders", each vowing to serve the people while serving
mostly themselves until the next mob or "leader" moves in to displace them.
The people of Haiti do not have a democracy now; and more to the point, they
did not have one from the moment that Aristide's government became corrupt
and unresponsive to public needs and the rule of law.

Democracy means "a government rules by consent of the governed."  It exists
to serve and protect its people- all of them.  It places popularly-decided
limitations (laws) on the activities of itself and its citizens to ensure
the democracy itself can survive.  When citizens disregard the law they must
answer for it.  When a government, even a democratically elected one,
disregards the law, democracy ceases to exist. A people who tolerate such
abuse for their self-interest or from mere apathy are unworthy of a
democracy.

IMHO, what Haiti has now is an opportunity to grow into a democracy while
other nations "pay the bill" for that growth by establishing order and most
important, assisting her people's needs while she is unable to do so.


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Corbett [mailto:corbetre@webster.edu]
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2004 9:39 AM
To: Haiti mailing list
Subject: 20999: Esser: Out With the Bad, In With the Worse (fwd)


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