The New Frontier (A Question)

[H2O Man]

{1} The New Frontier (Kahlil Gibran; 1925)

"Are you a politician
asking what your country can do for you
or a zealous one
asking what you can do for your country?
If you are the first,
then you are a parasite;
if you are the second,
then you are an oasis in the desert."


{2} The New Frontier (defined by John F. Kennedy)

"Too many Americans have lost their way, their will and their sense of historic purpose. It is a time, in short, for a new generation of leadership -- new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities. .... I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort, and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West. They were not the captives of their own doubts ....

"We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier .... a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils -- a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats. The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them .... Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? .... Are we up to the task -- are we equal to the challenge? .... That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make -- a choice ... between the public interest and the private comfort -- between national greatness and national decline .... All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try."


My question is: What does the idea of a "New Frontier" mean to you? There is no right or wrong answer; I am only asking what you think about this. And I will offer my own brief opinion ....

I believe that the USA entered a new and dangerous era when the Bush-Cheney administration assumed power in 2001. I think that their taking power was a consequence of a series of events that had been in motion for decades -- a progression in a direction that is very different than what I believe our Constitutional democracy should be heading.

I believe that the strength of the democratic party is found primarily at the grass roots level. I do not think it is as evident in Washington, DC as it is in the other cities and towns and rural areas of this nation. I think Gibran's term "parasite" is, sadly, an accurate description of the politicians in all three branches of our federal government. I prefer the zealous ones that he speaks of.

I am convinced that the possibility of a New Frontier is only going to be opened up by the grass roots progressives. That is not to say there are not a few good and decent elected officials in the congress. But it is my opinion that they are not able to institute the changes that are needed, as Kennedy noted, to move us in the direction of national greatness rather than national decline.

There are, of course, very real differences between the demands of the grass roots progressives, and the ability of even those few decent politicians to deliver. And there are far greater differences between the grass roots and the majority in congress. That has become more evident in the past week.

"This is what separated us from you; we made demands. You were satisfied to serve the power of your nation, and we dreamed of giving ours her truth." -- Albert Camus