Amid challenges, America needs recommitment to freedom, restoration of ideals

Read the latest op-ed in The Detroit News from the Honorable Mike Rogers, LEAD Founder and Former U.S. Representative and Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Today we find ourselves challenged from abroad, but also challenged at home, and it is imperative that we address the challenges within if we are to defend from without.

Our differences and our diversity of thoughts, opinions and beliefs, make us stronger than we can possibly realize, yet we need to look at our neighbors who disagree with us as just that — our neighbors, not our enemies.”

Mike Rogers

Our democratic experiment is the most successful in human history, not because it is perfect, but because it is a work in progress. People the world over look to the United States not because it is flawless, but because it embodies the best human ideals —freedom, opportunity, prosperity and hope. Now, more than ever, that embodiment, that ideal, is needed around the world. But it also requires renewal here at home.

This week, the United States is holding a “Summit of Democracy,” bringing together democratic leaders from around the world to address the significant challenges to the freedom and prosperity our way of government embodies.

Right now, we are witnessing the rise and spread of authoritarian states, states that do not offer hope or freedom, but oppression and bondage. In Beijing, we see the Chinese Communist Party masking its authoritarian doctrine in economic progress and stability, while imprisoning millions of minorities, snuffing out free speech and quashing any dissent.

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