Editor’s Page – August 2025

Democracy Is Not a Spectator Sport

One of the most difficult things I have had to do this year as Editor is to enforce my own rules about political content in the Ojo del Lago. It has been an ongoing struggle. And I have felt almost complicit in the things that are going on in my country, the USA, by my silence. I have also watched the resilience and struggle in Canada. And here in Mexico.

But I have decided after watching countries around the world and their reactions that I can say that the Democracy of our Republic is not and should never be “political.” Democracy belongs to the people.

I grew up in a small town that prided itself in its patriotism, its educational system, and when we graduated, we were given a pocket-size copy of the US Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. And I can tell you not one of my fellow graduates ever confused the history or the meaning of these historic documents.

Now our country is being threatened. The moral compass that we shared as a country has gone askew. Our ability to disagree and debate and still move forward has lapsed. Somewhere along the line, we became complacent. We allowed our country to flounder a bit at a time, until the sanctity of voting was no longer a civic duty, but a “hassle.” Keeping up with city, state, and federal government became cumbersome, and many of us participated occasionally in our responsibilities as citizens. As a country, we are blessed with the First Amendment – the rights that go along with the First Amendment, the freedom of thought and expression, the freedom of or from religion, the freedom to think for ourselves and to act on our beliefs. We fought wars for those freedoms. We fought world wars to help other countries regain those freedoms, and now, in front of our very eyes we are seeing those freedoms stripped away from the majority of the citizens in our country.

And it will not end well. We have already reached the point where each and every one of us must take a stand and make our needs known. Millions of citizens have risen up to peacefully demonstrate our disagreement with what is going on in our government right now. Have you noticed that millions of people around the globe march in solidarity? This affects their lives as well.

That is because Democracy is not a spectator sport. We cannot afford to sit in our homes and shake our heads and talk amongst ourselves about what is right or wrong – this someone ripping apart our country, ignoring our laws, kidnapping our citizens, hounding our legal immigrants, degrading our education and trying to “whitewash” our history. To stand aside and allow the poor to become victimized, to remove the programs that assist in their health care, to kill the science that protects us from diseases, and destroy the agencies that protect our workers, and our food production all so that those who hold the most wealth can gather more wealth.

If we are to remain a Democratic Republic, none of us can afford to be spectators and watch. We must rise and “make good trouble.” We must not allow our country to be carried off and become the very thing we fought against in World War I and World War II. No matter what your point of view, you must go out and express yourself. Protect your rights, your neighbors’ rights. Teach your children that they must question what is going on, just as we must question it. Do not allow yourselves to live inside a bubble of misdirection, misinformation, gaslighting, lies and obfuscation. Do not sit on the sidelines. Challenge everything. Because our Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. It requires action, care, thought and participation from all.