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 Schools
Should Teach Value of Informed Dissent
Our nation was born out of dissent, but conceived in hope. We
recognize that dissent is an act of faith rooted in the belief
that better things are possible. In America, dissent is
patriotic, and our children need to know this.
by Judge Damon Keith, Special to The Detroit News,
December 7, 2003
For more articles like this
visit
http://www.bridges4kids.org.
Future citizens
need to learn the importance of their constitutional rights;
America's Founding Fathers proved this when their first act of
patriotism was a protest.
In the 228 years since the great man of British letters Samuel
Johnson first penned the phrase "Patriotism is the last refuge
of a scoundrel," it has been quoted so often that it has almost
been reduced to a cliche.
Yet, it remains one of the most eloquent observations ever made.
It is also one of the most prescient. As recent events in our
nation have unfolded, it continues to be relevant -- two
centuries after first being spoken. One need not look very far
to see a disturbing trend taking place in the wake of the tragic
September 11th terrorist attacks and the subsequent war on
terrorism.
Even as our nation battles abroad to "protect our way of life,"
at home, it appears more and more of those very same rights and
liberties we have long taken for granted and are ostensibly
fighting to protect are eroding before our very eyes.
We are now confronted with the greatest expansion of government
power that I have seen in my lifetime.
The USA Patriot Act expands government's surveillance and
detention power, and allows an authority to monitor books people
read and conduct secret searches. Yet it appears when others
stand up to raise their voices against what they perceive as
government excesses and over reaching -- all in the name of
national security -- their patriotism is questioned or it is
suggested they are giving aid to the enemy or are "soft on
terrorism."
Making this phenomenon even more disturbing is the fact that few
people seem to be particularly concerned about this escalating
problem. This appears especially true among the young people of
our nation; many of whom are not old enough to appreciate how
hard others fought to attain the very rights now threatened.
But it is these same young people who have the most to lose in
this battle to redefine the very nature of our democracy. And it
is they -- more than anyone else -- who need to be educated
about their rights and responsibilities as citizens so they
better appreciate what is at stake.
Our nation was born out of dissent, but conceived in hope. We
recognize that dissent is an act of faith rooted in the belief
that better things are possible. In America, dissent is
patriotic, and our children need to know this.
They should be taught that the prime example of this principle
is the Declaration of Independence, in which Thomas Jefferson
wrote: "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed." How many of our
children realize that the Founding Fathers understood that the
people must be free to express their "consent" as well as
dissent?
And that the Declaration of Independence demonstrates that the
first patriots were not only willing to defend their rights by
dissenting in perilous times, but most able to articulate their
willingness? We must teach them that effective dissent is
informed dissent.
The fact that few young people today seem to appreciate this is
a poor reflection on our education system, which no longer
stresses the importance of understanding our constitutional
rights. And sadly it is also an indictment of much of the media,
which have failed to adequately inform citizens of their right
and duty to dissent when the government over-reaches or seeks to
truncate those rights.
That was not always the case. The civil rights movement was
literally a dissident movement led by young people who
understood the rights they were entitled to as Americans and
demanded they be respected. Many of those youthful leaders were
inspired to challenge the government to live up to its promise
of democracy by the media and educators who helped illuminate
the jarring disconnect between the American promise of equal
opportunity and fairness with the reality of living in an
apartheid state.
Still, in spite of my concerns in general about the media, I
would like to compliment The Detroit News for its illuminating
series on the threat to our basic civil liberties. It is that
kind of informed dissent that keeps our democracy vibrant and
ultimately meaningful. Time has shown us that suffrage, not
suffocation, protects our liberty.
If democracies die behind closed doors, then we must wedge the
doors open. So our children must be taught that informed dissent
is the lever of democracy, truth is its fulcrum, and courage is
its force.
Citizens must be willing to dissent and do so effectively. If
people have an education in their civil liberties, they will be
more capable to dissent.
In the case Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote that: "In our democracy,
based on checks and balances, neither the Bill of Rights nor the
Judiciary can second-guess government's choices. The only
safeguard on this extraordinary governmental power is the
public, deputizing the press, as the guardians of their
liberty."
The will of the people to act depends on information, but the
availability of information is not enough. Effective citizenship
demands that we are educated in, and capable of seeing abuses
to, our rights. Without a vibrant citizenry, capable of informed
dissent and willing to stand up, our Constitution would be as
dead as leaves.
So we should never forget that the Declaration of Independence,
our first act of patriotism, was an act of protest. We cannot
bask in the shadow of an earlier triumph when each child has the
potential to shine like the sun.
We can never abandon our responsibility to ensure that all
children know their rights and are able to effectively express
them. Anything less would be unpatriotic.
Judge Damon Keith of Detroit sits on the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1987, Chief Justice William
Rehnquist appointed him to serve as the National Chairman of the
Judicial Conference Committee on the Bicentennial of the
Constitution.
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