audrey_peterman_2.jpgAl Calloway always hits the nail on the head. Our country's rhetoric has never matched up to the reality, as he so succinctly describes in his column titled So-called democracy in America is just a theory, folks in the Oct. 11 issue.

As a naturalized American who has visited 167 units of our National Park System from coast to coast, I am keenly aware that this "democracy" can only be a work in progress, dependent upon the actions of those who believe in the common dignity of all humanity.

I see it at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site outside the District of Columbia and at the house of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, the white American publisher (1805-1879) who opposed enslavement with every fiber of his being.

In my travels across the country now, I see the fear and frenzy of which Calloway speaks and I can only say that every American is called upon to oppose that and play our part in advancing the democracy.

We must each be determined to help achieve the goal of “liberty and justice for all.”

AUDREY PETERMAN
Fort Lauderdale