I am thoroughly enjoying watching parts of the Democratic convention. I do not have much free time to do it, but it is quite enjoyable. What a spectacle! People certainly look like they are enjoying themselves. I suspect that the same thing will be happening next week among the Republicans.
It did make me reminisce. I have lived through two revolutions. As a young child in third grade, the country in which I was born, Cuban, went through a revolution. I ended up losing my country and losing contact with family members. They are still there, but there are some whom I have never met.
As a missionary, I was in Perú in 2000, when the anti-Fujimori demonstrations began after election day. Tens of thousands turned out in both Lima and Arequipa, as well as other places in the country. I was outside and saw police with shield fighting demonstrators with rocks. Tear gas flew, and I had to get out of the area quickly. A few months later, Fujimori fled to Japan.
And, I think, we Americans sometimes have so little appreciation for our democratic process. Yes, we have turned it into a quagmire of mud-slinging. We have debased the process of democracy into a giant game of “gotcha.” But, we are not shooting at each other. We are not ethnic cleansing each other. We are not in the midst of a revolution. We do not overthrow our leaders simply because they have low poll numbers. Eventually, we may truly debase our system so much that we fall into one of those other options, but, thank God, not yet.
And so today, thank God for the Democratic convention. And next week, thank God for the Republican convention. And the following week thank God that we will still be one country and not two or several.
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