Letter from Bob Cross
Democracy – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed and Martha:
As my march to dotage accelerates, thankfully, Colorado Central provides periodic abatements and brief self-delusions of clarity. The stimulus for this note is George Sibley’s June question, “Is Democracy Possible?” How can one not empathize with the dilemma George posits?
One response is to become students of principle, process, and natural consequence. Regardless of how much we read about coal-bed methane drilling, any roughneck on the job will have a better grasp of what really happens and the practical results than we could glean from 40 or 50 thousand words. But if we know and own the principles we are going to apply to the question, focus on the process of making opposing advocates fully disclose the factual elements, and then use our intuition and logic (and perhaps even our imagination) to identify natural consequences, we can function ethically and responsibly in any public debate.
We do have a process. We do have checks and balances that can jettison a tyranny of the majority. We win some, we lose some, but things get done, more good than bad in my opinion, but some of both to be sure. So George, if calling the process democratic insults your sensibilities, find new nomenclature and move on. There are those of character I would welcome at any public forum, read or unread, and you are one of those.
Bob Cross
Northglenn, Colorado