mayamaia | On morality and enfranchisement and goodness

I just saw a man on BART worried and frustrated over a debt that had not been paid. I was severely tempted to just offer to go with him and withdraw enough money to pay it for this total stranger, even though I really need to save money. So I asked the amount of the debt and what it was for... and then shook the man's hand and wished him luck. If it had been for food or rent, I would have given it to him.

Because today I feel something profound is changing. Today I see that, without a solidly practical victory, the political system has seen several symbolic ones, which speak to a change in the way voters judge morality.

Because, for all their anger, the Republican pundits are right: America IS changing its moral voice away from tradition. But rather than growing immoral, it is slowly deciding that morals are separate from creed.

In 1968, Louis Armstrong had his last hit single, the most hopeful song perhaps that has ever been written. What a Wonderful World, he sang, in the year that MLK Jr was assassinated, and Bobby Kennedy. When Vietnam protests and student protests reached their peak of vehemence and violence. What a Wonderful World, because at the end of a long and tired life, he had seen it grow better and better. From a poor and disenfranchised youth, through two divorces, still every stage brought him to a better world for himself and all of black America. He saw his brothers beginning to matter, the government taking civil rights seriously for the first time in his life.

That is what I see today. I see people I know and love becoming enfranchised for the first time in their lives. I see people taking rape seriously and treating LGBTQ as valid and equal to people like me. Today I have hope that good and fairness matter to the populace, beyond ideology, even if they have doubts about what party is most good or fair.

If you feel disenfranchised today, please understand that this is part of democracy: the majority is heard, even when the line is close to half. And remember that many of those who have been heard today feel their concerns are being heard for the first time in their entire lives.

I have hope today that the good I do can make a difference. It makes me want to do even more good.

The colors ofthe rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also onthe faces of people passing by
I see friends shaking hands saying "how do you do"
They're really saying I love you

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn so much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself, What a wonderful world...