Al Cline: Participate in most important elections in this lifetime

To The Daily Sun,

I am a pacifist. That doesn't mean being passive. For me it’s not a moral stance, it’s a tactical one. Fear and destruction are easy. Lasting policy and infrastructure come from empathy, research, constructive conversations, and hard work.

What the Trump administration is doing to our country, and the Free State Project is doing to our state, will not last. When we’re distracted with culture wars, the only things built are wealth inequality and tools of oppression. How much destruction will we tolerate before we prioritize stopping the deliberate dismantling of our governing systems, civil rights, and infrastructure?

When we do, we’ll still need to have the same conversations about what the government should build (Roads? Trains? Power plants? Prisons? Bombs?) and how we should pay for it. We’ll have to decide which personal liberties matter, and under what circumstances the government gets to override that. (Do we incarcerate people who rape children? People who sleep on the street?) We’ll have to find those answers together, and live with the results.

I believe I have an ethical obligation to defend my community from the chaos that a distracted and neglectful government brings in every nonviolent way possible; to raise my voice, to protest state violence, to directly help my neighbors, to volunteer with local nonprofits, and to educate myself.

Most of all, I believe it is time to participate in our democracy while we still have one. This summer and fall will be the most important election in any of our lives. Don’t vote on old party lines. Don’t sit it out. The decisions we make now will decide history. Protect our community. Actively choose peace.

Al Cline

Wolfeboro