THE L WORD: LIBERALISM IN CRISIS
Are you a liberal?
Do you believe in freedom?
Do you believe in a future where women, gays, and people of all faiths and traditions are free to be who they are without fear?
Do you believe in the beautiful and infinite diversity of humankind, our cultures and our individual lives?
Do you reject the failures of the past, and do you despise the regimes that keep entire nations in chains?
Do you believe that the smiling, clean-cut collaborators share the perpetrators’ guilt?
Do you hold a healthy skepticism for the institutions of “culture”, and do you yet believe that the richness of our lives comes from the wealth of culture, high and low, that is available to us?
Do you chafe at the pretensions of the elite classes, and do you still believe that all people, mighty and humble, may partake of the humanity that makes us divine and the divinity that makes us human?
Do you rebel against the abuse of power, and do you still believe that power may be used wisely and justly?
Do you believe that we can change for the better, that with good will, faith, careful thought, and courage we can build the world we want?
And do you remember that the word “liberal” means a believer in freedom?
