Closing Thoughts Heading Into The Election

In closing his speech in Georgia tonight, Former President Obama pointed us in the direction that I, too, have been feeling. He implored the crowd to reclaim our once-held decency and honor, and to restore the greatness we once shared, the values that made us a beacon of freedom and a light of hope to the world. Values and decency in the United States lie in broken shards scattered across the land.  It is like the Grinch knocked over our Christmas tree, scattering broken ornaments across the room. The irony is that something like this happened years ago at the beginning of our demise. Made-up claims arose about "liberals making Merry Christmas illegal." Starbucks got tremendous backlash for selling Christmas coffees in cups that said, "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas.  It expanded like hot air does, stoked by invisible hands manipulating grievance, blaming immigrants & "welfare queens" for everyone's problems. And that same invisible hand, now more obviously held by multi-millionaires, is still working to inflame social media landscapes with recriminations that keep us divided and blind to The Greatest Heist ever pulled. Everyone can point blame, and while we're bickering, the Organ Grinder and his monkeys are robbing us all blind and selling us out to old enemies, stock brokers, and the highest bidder. 

We Americans are far worse off than we have been in many decades. Noble values like generosity, compassion, kindness, neighborliness, compromise, and "leaving nobody behind" have fallen off a cliff. In their place have come avarice, racism, cruelty, untruthful suspicions, violence, and the full-on robbery of our federal treasury. We can't go on like this -- at least, it's not where I want to live, and it's not a country I think is right to leave to future generations to "clean up."  

The first question may be: does anyone still cherish the concept of virtues? Assuming the answer is "yes."  What makes them so difficult to achieve in this social climate? Is it the unscrupulous people who have weaseled their way into political office?  (They didn't get there without a whole lot of our help.)  Is money really the root of all the evil that is gobbling up our souls? Just how is it with your soul?

What does your soul need?  For whom/what would your soul vote? The Republican Party for most of the past 10 years has almost universally represented itself as uncaring and focused only on its power and money.  To be fair, some Democrats also might be working that angle.  The very clear reality staring us down is that the slide away from all virtue and honor has been dramatic in the past 2 years, and if we voters don't vote for change, we will certainly all experience the worst that can happen.  Getting our honor back is already going to be a major undertaking that may take years.  The Lord only knows how long or how bad it gets if we don't change direction now.  

In my mind, the direction toward change is clear.  Virtues are the best building blocks possible for a society. Lack of them is bad for everyone. My advice to all reading this is to elbow your conscience and ask yourself what your faith tells you is right. Because right and wrong are the two choices we all have in front of us. .