You may call the following my personal manifesto. You may disagree with some or all of what I'm about to reveal about my beliefs. They are personal, but my hope is to describe here something universal, so that you, gentle reader, might believe also.

Few things in my life have affected me as deeply as being a Democrat. The convictions I hold most dear find resonance in the Democratic Party's core values. I am proud that my party responds to our changing world, reinvents itself with the times, and yet remains a source of inspiration for me, if not always a perfect touchstone for truth.

I am 48 years old, the seventh of eight children in a Catholic family that struggled for a meaningful and decent life when the great river city of St. Louis was bustling with progress, wealth and people.

My father's side of the family was Irish, having arrived in the U.S. after the great Potato Famine of the 1840s. By the early 20th Century, my father's side of the family had established itself in St. Louis, mostly in the saloon business. In the early 1960s, my grandfather was appointed by John F. Kennedy to be assistant postmaster of St. Louis. My father, who served in the Pacific during WWII but will never discuss it, went to work for the post office, too, so our family moved a lot as he rose up the ladder.

My mother worked for the state unemployment section, summoning strength to read to us, to console our skinned knees and bruised hearts, and to tuck us into bed with a kiss goodnight. Her mother, a woman of gentle affection and stern sensibilities, had met her husband while he was serving in Europe during WWI. He returned to France soon after the armistice was signed to retrieve his love and make her an honest American woman. A man of great intelligence, humor and stern morals, my mother's father had also been in the Merchant Marines, where he acquired a respectable fluency with eight languages.

My brothers and sisters are dispersed across the country now, most getting used to their children having left the nest, some still struggling like me to overcome or endure a disproportionate share of whimsical fate. My parents divorced after 25 years, and my father is coping with the loss, just a month ago, of his second wife to a lingering and painful cancer.

I am downsizing, moving my household this week to an efficiency just across the street. My wife, whom I have loved and admired for nearly 13 years, left me almost two months ago for another man -- a convicted felon who enjoys sketching pornography and is writing a first-person novel about a serial killer.

Last year, I became disabled as the result of a surgery that accelerated the obscure but relatively common genetic disease that renders my dominant hand almost useless now and will take my other hand in due time. To say I am distressed by the confluence of these tragic events would be like saying the ocean is a little moist. I am starting over and taking on the challenge of life one day at a time.

Yet against all the odds I face, there is something in my mind and heart that will not surrender to despair. I have the hope of a Democrat.

My education, my work as a journalist and publisher, tells me that life goes on in this big world of ours. My upbringing reminds me that life is worth the struggle to leave the world better than you found it. And my own soul-searching has led me to accept that I am as imperfect as the world around me, and just as rare and precious.

These observations are part of what a Democrat -- this Democrat, anyway -- believes and holds dear.

And here I will list other things that I believe the party stands for and has held to over the years like a compass always pointing to true north.

A Democrat believes that all men and women really are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights, and granted the same birthright to political power as our most fortunate citizens.

A Democrat believes in the imperative of time's arrow, which points forward only, to the future. It is there that we must live, work and succeed so that we and those who follow us may enjoy the fruition of our ideals at the earliest possible onset of the present.

A Democrat values diversity in all manifestations of creation. Whether it is the diversity of life on planet Earth, the racial or religious diversity of the nation, or the diversity of opinion among ourselves, a Democrat welcomes the kaleidoscope of life and delights in its infinite possibilities.

A Democrat is not afraid to speak his mind, help his neighbor or fight for the long-term good of the nation. We believe in a strong and complete interpretation of the Bill of Rights, construing those rights for the greatest possible liberty of the individual. We are not afraid of good government or fair taxation for good cause. We are not afraid to go to war if our cause is necessary and the danger grave and immediate. Nor are we afraid to secure peace wherever peace is possible.

A Democrat reveres the rights of the individual above the interests of commercial enterprise; above governmental intrusion, abuse and fraud; and above all limitations that would coerce, degrade or demoralize the person of a citizen for ideological reasons alone or purposes without substantial public benefit.

A Democrat believes in one person, one vote; that all eligible voters have the duty to shape their government; that no eligible voter should be coerced or denied the expression of their desires through the ballot or in petitioning their government for a redress of grievances.

A Democrat believes in a clean environment that promotes a healthy planet and the diversity of life on Earth. We cannot settle for delay or half-measures at a time when the resources of our government and those of other nations must be focused to preserve the planet. Economic displacement and socio-political disruption must be important but secondary considerations in the goal of ensuring our planet is whole and hospitable for future generations.

A Democrat believes the poor, the sick, the homeless, the uneducated and the oppressed are due special respect and consideration among our citizens. There can be no tolerance of social and economic disparity brought about, or contributed to, by governmental or societal barriers to a decent standard of living. We believe it is our duty to strive for a fairer, more equitable, more perfect union. And we will let no citizen starve of famine, malnutrition or lack of work. We believe in people pulling themselves up from their circumstance, but we also believe in granting bootstraps where bootstraps are needed and knocking down barriers where barriers serve to hinder rather than protect.

A Democrat believes in the promise of the American Dream. It is not a chicken in every pot or two cars in every garage. Rather, it is the right to find a degree of happiness, dignity and meaning in one's life.

Lastly, a Democrat believes in the idealism of youth, the wisdom of age and the value of citizenship. When, as a child, I read the words of John F. Kennedy's first Inaugural Address, I caught my first glimpse of what a Democrat is. Among the busts and framed speeches that lined the downstairs room where my grandfather had created a modest shrine to our slain first Irish Catholic president, I read this:

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

A Democrat might very well shed his cynicism to find inspiration in JFK's words. Because a Democrat believes in the possibility of change for the better, the need for all to prosper and none to suffer, and in the power of his own efforts to make a difference.