Some Thoughts from the Author Richard Brink

In 1839, the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote one of the most quoted lines of all time in his play 'Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy,' and I believe it to be true, and you also will become a believer. He wrote, 'Beneath the rule of men entirely great the pen is mightier than the sword.' The line itself expresses the essence of Democracy, for it offers a process of achieving goals through written words, which in itself implies a civilized approach to governance through the mutual exchange of ideas as opposed to through violence and brute force.

While it's true that our current Democracy is flawed, it has produced the strongest and healthiest society for its people as well as the Earth in all of human history, and this success can be attributed to the laying down of blunt objects as tools of manipulation by a few in favor of the law of many through words and debate. While it's true that this land was first taken by force from the Native Americans, it has come to be the view of the vast majority that those early violent events should be viewed as injustices rather than as accomplishments. Although Native Americans have not always fared well in modern American society as a result of the wars waged against them, all are now full citizens of the United States, a right that was won through law and debate, and have the equal opportunity to pursue the fruits of our great society.

What you have suggested is a re-establishment of the boundaries and use of this land to pre-European standards. You would like to see this land as the Native Americans once did -- forests teaming with game, plains engorged with massive herds of buffalo, waterways overflowing with fish. For sure, the nostalgia for such abundance and natural wonder is great, but we can never return fully to those days, except in our imaginations. What is done is done, for better or for worse, and we move forward as a nation, just as other great civilizations did before ours.

Although our civilization may not be most remembered for preserving the Earth's natural beauty, centuries from now our ancestors will recall that it was we who created a more just society for women, children and people of color and paved the way towards equality by making it law that no person should be oppressed or discriminated upon by another. This recognition of the value of all human life makes our civilization the greatest to have ever walked this Earth. There is no going back on this. We have come too far to return back to a time when the fanciful ideas of a few should be foisted upon the many. Modern dictatorships with their threat of the use of force, which is what you have suggested, have always built short-lived and flimsy societies.

My greatest power comes from the words that I produce. I have built a small empire of my own with my writing. I value this power above all else, for all that I have can be attributed to it. I live and die by the pen as it were and from my own ideas put to paper. To allow the vehicle of my own writing to be driven by another would result in my own demise, just as surely as lack of food and water would lead to my death. At least if I should succumb to the latter, my body may wither and crumble, but my inner self shall remain intact. You can go to Hell because I won't write a line for you.