I GOT IT, I DESERVE IT, NOW WHAT DO I DO WITH IT?

Question: Why do we find scenes with Joe Six Pack uncomfortably squeezed into a tux or enduring an opera or attending an esoteric lecture so funny...? Answer: Because Joe is out-of-place...!

In many ways, this is a description of democracy in modern America. Even though intellectual candor tells us many of us not only feel but actually are out of place, we will fight to have the right to be in any place any time we damn well choose. After all, wasn't this great democratic right awarded us by such great aristocratic elites as Thomas Jefferson, the Founding Fathers, and every aristocratic president until Lincoln came loping out of the prairies almost 100 years later? And now another 150 years after Lincoln, haven't we proudly pressed this right to where every kid deserves a winner's trophy in the game, belongs in college, fits in the box seats at the Met, should sing on television, or eventually can run for congress and president.

OK, it's true that aristocracy -- the opposite mindset to democracy -- had its chance in history, but produced the good life for only the few. However, now the question becomes: will today's new wide-lens vision and version of democracy do any better?

Well, lets see.

We have everyday-Joe and anywhere-Jane in any place they want. By god, this is our god-given right, and anyone trying to take it away has a flag-and-constitution-waving fight on their hands. Of course there is this troubling distinction between the right to do something, and the right stuff with which to do it. Which is why it's of particular interest to listen to the monosyllabic Palins speaking of national leadership, off-key singers appearing on network television, twits tweeting for national readerships, a handful of Biblical aficionados shredding Korans for international attention, and any basement blogger in the land with the keypad power to reach out and into millions of minds.

The ancient Greeks gave us the noble concept of democracy. The 18th C political thinkers shaped that concept into what we proudly call Western Thought. Now here in the 21st C we've loudly concluded there are no "betters" in our lives as once our ancestors were taught. And, in the face of God and in the light of our constitution, we're right.

But now comes the hard part. Distinguishing between having and earning our rights. Something like choosing to whom to give the scalpel -- the compassionate relative or the skilled surgeon when Mom is being wheeled into the OR....