Our Rights... and Responsibilities

Well, it’s my last week in the States after about a month of leave/holiday. And although the number of people asking me to compare Namibia with the US has now slowed to a trickle, I think I finally have part of an answer.

The age of the countries is something that I frequently highlight. While the US is over 200 years old, Namibia is barely 20. I’m older than Namibia.

But, part of what this means is that most citizens in Namibia have a profound respect for their country, its independence, and the freedoms they are afforded. It’s hard to untangle whether it is the small population or the newness of the state, but either way Namibians tend, much more than the majority of Americans, to stand up for what they believe in. They fight for what they think is right and voice their opinions; yet at the same time, most still clearly have an appreciation for what they do have.

Last week I went with my friend Hannah to the Valley Forge National Park in PA for a run. We were struck by the following quote that was displayed in the big arch:

“Let us believe with an abiding faith that to them union will seem as dear and liberty as sweet and progress as glorious as they were to our fathers and are to you and me and that the institutions which have made us happy preserved by the virtue of our children shall bless the remotest generation of the time to come.”

Maybe it’s just that I’m seeing a weird cross-section of the US while I’m here, or the absurd comparison of two totally different countries and regions of the world. But that instruction seems to be, pretty much, exactly what we’re NOT doing here in America. In my school in Tses, we constantly compare 'rights' with 'responsibilities'. We tell the learners that in order to deserve and maintain your rights, you have to hold up your end of the deal, too. Are we doing that as Americans?

I don’t know how you value the things you have when you’ve always had them. We in the US are blessed to have preserved rights like ‘union’ and ‘liberty’ and ‘progress’ (generally) our whole lives. But it seems to me that we don’t value them anymore. We don’t fight for the pure form of democracy that was the foundation of our country. We don’t fight to retain it, nor to preserve equality and freedom at all costs, the way our forefathers might have anticipated. In fact, seeing as our country was founded on these very things (to which we no longer assign much value), no wonder it sometimes seems like the US is starting to fray at the edges. The only reason for the formation of our country was, in fact, freedom. Our ancestors departed from basically every other country in order to come someplace “free.” If “free” is no longer the goal, then what holds our country together? In these tumultuous times (don’t even try to tell me that Ferguson et al. haven’t brought some instability into our consideration of equal rights), how can we afford NOT to stand up and fight for equality and freedom for all?