Greece Voted No -- But Is Europe "Democracy Tone-Deaf?"

One determined young man with 11 million fearless citizens behind him can change Europe. And perhaps the world. ~~~~~ Greece has voted NO. The cradle of democracy has raised its 2,500-year-old torch high. We can both marvel at Greek fearlessness and feel shame at our own timidity in the aftermath of this truly human victory. No to more humiliating enforced austerity with its resulting 25% reduction in Greece's productive capacity. No to hungry pensioners. No to suicides. No to massive destructive joblessness and poverty. No. ~~~~~ This week we will see how the Eurozone and its troika of the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund respond. We will see what German Chancellor Merkel says and does to try to salvage the Euro and the European Union from the rising tide of democracy in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy -- and in the United Kingdom where Prime Minister David Cameron has already set the scene for a vote next year on whether to stay in the EU. The UK has just been given a big stick by Greece's indefatigable democrats. He may now find Denmark and France, and the new eastern European EU members, more open to driving through badly needed reforms to return the EU to its achievable vision of a confederation of sovereign nations with no internal tariff and travel walls and selected common programs for industrial development and defense. ~~~~~ Greece has big problems to solve. It will need the help of the ECB to provide Greek bank liquidity. It will need the help of its creditors, who must face reality and re-negotiate Greece's debt. It will need the IMF to arrange a roll-over of its Greek loan to stretch out the repayment schedule. If - as appears impossible in practical terms - the EU/ECB/IMF balks, Russia and China seem ready to step in. This would be especially problematic for NATO because Greece is the NATO member that anchors its Mediterranean reach, along with a more worrisome Turkey that is now playing a dangerous game of support for Islamist jihadists. ~~~~~ One would hope that the United States will choose to help Greece. That seems very improbable if we expect the Obama administration to respond. But, this past week, 9 House members and one Senator wrote to the IMF's Legarde to say that if the IMF does not help Greece, they will ask Congress to reconsider the US role in the IMF. A powerful message from members of the American institution that signs the US check for the IMF. ~~~~~ Dear readers, I began in January to plead Greece's case. I felt a lot like Don Quixote jousting at windmills. But some things are non-negotiable because they represent universal human truths. Democracy comes first on that list for me. And, true to its civilization -- which it has planted in the DNA of all of us who are her children -- Greece has proved decisively that democracy is not negotiable. There are lessons for America here and we will soon address them. But, today belongs to Greece. It has taught us once again that people matter, that culture matters, that humanity matters. And that democratic institutions are the only protector of those truths. Today, for the thousandth time, I can say "Thank-you" to the memory of my Athenian grandfather who, by his words, actions and life, taught all of us, his grandchildren, that if one wants to be a complete human being, it is culture, civility, human kindness, intellectual curiosity, ethical behavior - and Greece - that matter.