Untitled - Convivencia

y the sovereign will of citizens. Three: theacknowledgement and the legal protection ofthe civic and political participation “with alland for the benefit of all”.Some positive results: Cubans, women andmen, will be able to enjoy civic and politicalfreedom guaranteed by a stable legalframework: We would have independenttribunals, a civic space for debates,discrepancy and consensus and the ones whohave vocation will be able to be nominated byothers or by themselves in order to make thepolitical power to be a true public service. Themultiparty system will exhibit the diversity ofour nation and its multicolour soul on thestreets and in the squares. Cuba will stopbeing a nation in the depths of simulation andfear and will adopt an exposed andtransparent way of life.Negative limitations and dynamics: Withoutcivic friendship politics turns into adehumanizing battlefield. Governmentprograms are not discussed but private livesof politicians are under attack. Power is nothold to serve but politicians would use theothers to climbing up to power and dominate.Electoral campaigns would turn into battles tocause the loss of prestige of the different oneand to reveal inside information about hismanagement or his party. The practice ofobtaining votes with promises of governmentposts, populism and leadership will help tostrengthen the belief that politics is“something dirt”. Bad doctors don’t makemedicine to be considered something dirt.Proposals for a political change as humanas possible: An ethical and civic education forpublic life can instruct citizens to be fraternaland make proposals. We have to be sure ofthe conviction that all of us are human andthus perfectible, fragile; we have ourlimitations and we can make mistakes. Civicfriendship is something that would allowpolitical freedom to be lived the way it is livedin those more civilized countries where goinginto politics is not to learn how to bite anddiscredit the adversary but to learn how andwith what resources one can run a country thebest way possible; to serve people of one’scountry better; to become a part of this worldwhich is increasingly interdependent andabove all, learning how to take care of citizensand have their lives and dignity as thesupreme value; to contribute to the prosperityof the country; to learn how to be subsidiaryand supportive with the most vulnerable onesin the accomplishment of the possiblepersonal happiness and the attainablecommon good. In a word, it’s about educatingso that one politician would not be, bydefinition and in action, the enemy of theother politicians or the enemy of his peoplebut the brother in the common cause whichwould be the national welfare, theinternational peace and cooperation.What do we understanding by mentalitychange?These two examples could help us realize thatthe proposal of educating for civic friendshipand for pacific coexistence is not a “kind”proposal or a sentimental or a pseudoreligiousproposal or even a naïve contribution.What we are proposing has a stronganthropological dimension in a world that hasreduced the human person to a machine thatproduces or consumes or on the contrary hehas been reduced to being a defenceless andfaceless mass. That is why many peoplediscredit the inhuman market or they don’tbelieve in politicians anymore, they don’tbelieve in parties anymore or what is evenmore serious: they don’t believe in democraticinstitutions anymore. This is the worstscenario for the future of every nation. Weunderstand as mentality change the fact thatevery civilized country must have economiclaws and must believe in them even if they arelimited by nature. They must be regulated byfinding the irreplaceable connection betweenethics and economics. On the other hand,every civilized people should have democraticinstitutions which have been universallyproven; people must believe in them includingpolitical parties and politicians as servers ofthe nation although they have limitations andmake mistakes because they are human andthe institutions are human work. We have toadd dignity to the institutions by cultivatingthe inalienable relationship between ethicsand politics. That is, to put the common goodabove the class struggle. It is necessary toremember this paradigmatic phrase bySenator José Manuel Cortina who was born inPinar del Río. He said it during the ConstituentEdiciones ConvivenciaPinar del Río. 2012105