Prague, Czech Republic
November 15, 2004

What is a healthy democracy? The United States is a healthy democracy in which 51% of voters chose George W. Bush to be their leader.

As someone who worked for John Kerry since March of 2003, I was naturally very upset at thinking of what kind of America I would return to in December. Then again, as my professor Vaclav Bartuska said, “it’s no fascism.” Touché.

The Czech Republic is a healthy democracy in which its citizens, now 15 years after the fall of communism, feel comfortable enough to let everyday worries about, who knows, maybe grocery shopping, predominate their thoughts rather than news about the inner workings of their government. Sounds like any other Western country filled with apathy towards politics, the United States included.

But a few days from now is the anniversary of something extraordinary: the Velvet Revolution. Those who weren’t around to experience the events of November 1989 like to think of the people involved as most exceptional and courageous. How many of us can imagine being in the position of Bartuska, the first student to be arrested by the Communists when he was 20 years-old? He became involved in publishing secret newspapers, calling for a pivotal nationwide strike, and was later elected by the Parliament to interrogate the Secret Police. But when I talk to him about ’89, he calls himself one of a few lucky idiots. I can’t figure out if he’s just being humble, or if we could all find a similar suicidal determination to change our government if our backs were against the wall.

Bartuska says the young people in the Czech Republic today haven’t had the chance to see for themselves whether they’re made of steel or plaster. Maybe these very nice and mellow conditions in which we live in turn us mostly into plaster, he says. We Americans and Czechs are lucky to live in healthy democracies, no matter who our elected leaders might be, for the fact that at least they’re legitimately elected. However, I don’t like that apathy and disillusionment towards politics are symptoms of health. I think of November 17, 1989 and hope that maybe students, myself included, can find they are made of steel, or maybe we’ll be lucky enough not to have to find out.

What is a healthy democracy? Bartuska says, “It makes life so nice and so easy that we stop realizing that life actually is an effort."