Sunday, July 15, 2007

Two beers for democracy

How wonderful to be in a theater full of Chapel Hillians to watch Sicko this afternoon, then to walk over to Pepper's Pizza to talk about it over dinner--"a night on the town" organized by Robert Peterson and the folks at Blue NC.

A particularly great moment was when old Labour Party leader, former Member of Parliament Tony Benn began to wax eloquent on the connection between universal health care and democracy. Far from calling it a socialist idea, he claimed that it arises out of the power of the people to demand what they need, a power that wasn't available before the rise of democracy.

As it turns out, Tony Benn has said a great deal about the history of democracy. He narrated a documentary called "Big Ideas that Changed the World: Democracy," parts of which you can see on Daily Kos.

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