American politicians are now brand names, packaged like breakfast cereal. Anybody and any idea can be sold with a bright ribbon and a catchy jingle.

The bravery of those who found their social conscience, overcame fear, and stood up to communist dictatorship remains fresh in my memory. It reminds me of the jingle of keys that rang out on Prague s Wenceslas Square and later around the rest of what was then Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1989.