The Voice of The People

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."-Abraham Lincoln. Democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. If I were given a chance to create a New World, I could only hope that it would be built around democracy.

Democracy is important because it gives everyone a chance for free expression, and gives the opportunity to those freely chosen to represent the people, a chance to make the rules and laws based on the opinions of all. In this way, I feel that democracy connects to freedom, because people are free to say what they think. An example of this is current day New World in the book: The Knife of Never Letting Go, where Voices and Noise are nothing short of abundant. There shouldn't be a prominent voice, to which everyone should listen to, like Mayor Prentiss, but instead, there should be a common voice to which everyone has a part of. That way, decisions are made not only by a leader, but by the people as well.

Also, I think it is important for a society to be built around democracy because everyone is equal. In a democracy, votes are all the same worth. It doesn’t matter who voted, because they are all counted in the process of fair election. Equality is important because in a place where everyone can be from different minorities or ethnic groups because of immigration, people shouldn’t be put apart or not considered because of their roots. It is because of equality that people can attempt to coexist, whether it be with the opposite gender or people from different places. Going to an international school has helped boost awareness of the importance of this in me.

Without democracy, New World is not guaranteed long lasting peace and prosperity, because of the fact that choices made are not always shared by all. Which means that war could be started based upon the fact that people simply aren’t happy with the choices made by the leader. In a democracy, those who are chosen to represent the people are held accountable, whereas, dictators don’t have the same sense of accountability. An example would be in dictatorships of our world today, like Gadhafi. Abraham Lincoln states "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master..." Through this quote, Lincoln expresses the idea that, democracy is for everyone and that everyone should have a chance at democracy, no matter who they are. Abraham Lincoln was not only an inspirational leader but an advocate of democracy. I can only hope that New World will find a leader that follows in his footsteps.