Archive: Opinions

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is dead. Assassinated at a political rally, with a subsequent car bomb killing at least twenty supporters. Two months after returning from foreign exile. With national elections scheduled for January 8, 2008. She is no longer a candidate.

Incumbent President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held the nation under emergency rule from November 3, 2007 to December 15, 2007, gutted the courts of its judges, threw more than 2,000 black-suited lawyers into jail. He remains a candidate.

We have grown so complacent in our democracy that we fail to live up to our individual responsibilities. Nearly half of us didn't vote last month, and those who did were not at risk for death through suicide bomber or assassin en route to the polls. Even fewer of us participate in local political committees, and not one of us risked jail for our name appearing on the opposition list. And, it is the rare individual who runs for office, even though our families do not have to go into hiding abroad in order for us to do so.

The voices of peace and democracy around the world have been all too freely murdered, from Prime Minister Bhutto to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 to Senator Robert Kennedy in 1968 to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 to President John F. Kennedy in 1963 to Mohandas Gandhi in 1948.

Here, then, is my ask. It is the opposite of a moment of silence. Please stand up, right now, wherever you are and shout "Democracy!" in honor of the death of Bhutto. The worst that will happen will be some funny looks. But, then take a moment to imagine the great potential of our nation as a positive force on Earth if all of us cried, "Democracy!" Shout so that they will hear you as they mourn Bhutto's death in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, some 6,834 miles from Rochester.

The cry of democracy. More powerful than a nuclear bomb. One voice, one word, so powerful it puts one at risk of death. Will you take that risk as you safely read this editorial? Are you willing for two to three seconds to be at the center of attention for your beliefs? How little our democracy asks from each one of us.


Respectfully submitted,
Paloma A. Capanna
Democratic Candidate
N.Y.S. Senate, 54th District