Dissent is Democracy

Below is a letter to the editor written by my father (that's him on the left). I thought it deserved to be posted here. Enjoy.

Dear Editor:

A national news story this week should have us all very worried. It says that politicians are doing everything they can to stifle dissent. There is a reason why the first amendment was first. There is a reason why the founders wrapped five basic rights together in that brilliant first article rather than setting them out separately.

Judge Learned Hand understood that when, half a century ago, he wrote, "All discussion, all debate, all dissidence tends to question and in consequence to upset existing convictions; that is precisely its purpose and its justification."

Dissent is democracy. If we cannot understand that basic idea we are lost. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement understand the necessity of informed dissent. That is one of the reasons we have invited Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's magazine, to speak at our annual convention in Des Moines this summer, on July 14.

Lapham writes, "Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors." We need to take him seriously. We need to get to work.

Sincerely,
Bob Uetz