Prometheus, El Paso Metro
It is a time for celebration when a system experiences the results of what was once dormant potential. Any system; biological, mechanical, economic, or social requires some basic principles in order for it to come to life and yield a product. The more complex the system the more likely it will self-organize in a manner to guarantee its very own survival. Those that rely on Government, or exist within it; organize to protect the system’s existence. Defense mechanisms are set up to protect it from attack. Bureaucracies and mundane protocols become defense barriers. Those that are intimate with a system do not notice that defenses impact on those that try to interact with it from the outside. All they care about is that the system, and they, survive.
El Paso’s government has lost its bearings. Simply put, our Government’s original purpose was to ensure individual freedoms and liberties. Our government was not meant to exist as an individual entity. Most people refer to “the government” as if they were talking about a thing. The meaning of the word is similar to the word community. We collectively are the government, it is not them but rather us. John Locke wrote:
MEN being by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent, which is done by agreeing with other men, to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living, one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater security against any that are not of it. This any number of men may do, because it injures not the freedom of the rest; they are left, as they were, in the liberty of the state of Nature.
El Paso’s system of citizenship has been a system with unlimited potential waiting for a spark. We have been complacent in our involvement and have reaped the consequences. This lethargy has lead to the rise of a local government that lies outside our citizens’ grasp. It serves to protect itself without regard to those that are the very building blocks of government; the people themselves. We are now witnessing the birth of citizenship. People, of different philosophies, are coming together for a common cause. Citizenship, once dormant, is arising to reclaim its place in the system.
Modern day founders, uncommon people found in quite common places, are rising as leaders. These leaders are organizing the potential that is El Paso’s people in such a way that we become viable as a force. Leaders, guiding our citizens by developing goals and uniting factions behind principles larger than our old-fashioned and outlived pettiness which once served only to divide our society one group against another. Leaders from all walks of life are now igniting the passion and purpose in our citizenry that is required to get this system moving and back on its intended course. The potential is inherent in all people but what we had been lacking was the leadership and now it too is rising.
A government controlled by the people, for the purpose of preserving individual rights, is the only medium that will allow for differences to exist. Each and every person in our society has a stake in this rebirth. Each person shares with each other person the common bonds of individual liberty and freedom. Each person must rise to the occasion and provide their talents to the cause of citizenship. This is the only way that a society can ensure that individual rights inherent in all people will forever remain intact.
