Henrietta Hay's Column

Social progress comes slowly and painfully. It is subject to great leaps forward and major setbacks.

In the twentieth century we as Americans leapt forward for a while. Descendants of slaves not only can vote, but are Mayors and Senators and Generals. Women, disenfranchised for the first century of our nation, can vote, run for office, become professionals and run corporations.

In my lifetime we have grown from a nation of rugged individualism to a huge, powerful, modern nation in which we are of necessity interdependent. We have learned to use and share our resources and our humanity. With all the system's flaws, we care for those who need help. And through all the changes we have maintained most of our individual civil rights.

Several years ago in a Time essay Robert Hughes tried to explain the American psyche. "The fundamental temper of America tends toward an existential ideal that can probably never be reached but can never be discarded: equal rights to , to construct your life as you see fit, to choose your traveling companions. It has always been a heterogeneous country and its cohesion, whatever cohesion it has, can only be based on mutual respect."

When that mutual respect is lost, America starts to fray.

Mario Cuomo in his new book, Reason to Believe suggests that we have started to fray. "With what seems a sudden spasm, America has been shoved into a new political course that heads us backward toward our nation's first century, while the new crew yells to us, "That's where we'll find the future!

"The new Republican agenda won't solve our problems. It is a New Harshness that will make them worse, while stirring our meanest instincts and trampling upon our best impulses. It will hurt people, deny us opportunities and damage America."

Just last week Daniel Schorr said on National Public Radio that "We are flying apart...We are trying to bring government down."

It is time for reason if we are to survive. Reasonable people live in an ordered society.

Political protest is not new. Dissension and disagreement are a part of our political existence. The founding fathers fought over every word of the constitution. We've been fighting over politics ever since. It's the American way! My mother disliked and distrusted Franklin Roosevelt as much as I dislike and distrust Newt, but neither of us thought of bringing down the government because it did not agree with us.

What is new is the vicious hatred and the fear of government and the violence that it spawns. We are in age of demagogues who believe that there is only one path to virtue - their path. We have armed militia groups all over the country, and guns and knives in the streets. We hear people shouting, "The only good government is no government." Instead of changing or reforming it, too many Americans are saying let's get rid of it.

Reasonable people have to assume leadership and convince Americans that they can trust their government and most of those people who are trying to make it work. Fiscal conservatism and social liberalism can exist together. We need to cut government spending with care and compassion and an even hand.

Cuomo considers campaign finance and lobbying reform, and taking strong steps to limit the influence of lobbyists to be especially important.

Perhaps most important of all, it is time for us to put our votes where our mouths are. Scarcely half of eligible voters vote in presidential elections. Less than a third of them turn out for the Congressional elections. Local elections usually draw far less than that.

Cuomo says, "It's our government unless we give it away.... for all its faults and foibles, we should resist the temptation to follow leaders who encourage us to throw up our hands in disgust or turn our backs on the idea of community. Instead we should rededicate ourselves to honing the goals of government... In the end the last, best hope for our national community is that the people will decide they once more have the patience to play another inning in the magnificent, ramshackle ballpark of our democracy."

Pogo says, "We have met the enemy and it is us." Calvin was more upbeat. "Let's go exploring."