The radio alarm is set to come on at the morning news time. I was awakened to a very interesting term used in the story pertaining to the upcoming election in Iraq. The terminology used by the reporter made me sit up and pay attention. He said America was exporting democracy. Immediately I thought of 6th grade Social Studies and wondered how a term to describe commerce and trade became descriptive of establishing government, but it has. Somewhere between a Webster's Dictionary (c) 1977 and the internet, the word export, imported a broader defintion. I looked it up on WordWeb and sure enough, the second definition was "Cause to spread in another part of the world." ex: "The Russians exported Marxism to Africa." The first definition says there is an exchange: "sell or transfer abroad." One doesn't keep what one sells or transfers. Well, and now that I think about it . . . Russia doesn't have Marxism anymore, either.
I'm not ready to accept that a government of the people, for the people and by the people; is now seen as something that is merely manufactured or even more frightening, as a natural resource. I don't even want to think the beliefs and lives of people can be equated with mere products and commodities. Surely we are not ready to view our national ideology on the same level as . . . Wow, there isn't much made in America any more, is there?
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