Our Better Angels (January 2009)

What a tremendous moment in history!! -- Martin Luther King's birthday falling one day before his success is demonstrated in the inauguration of Barack Obama, Black people and members of other historically oppressed groups traveling to Washington D.C. to celebrate a victory over oppression, and Obama taking up Martin Luther King's "torch" for service. I have always voted in the presidential elections, but rarely have I believed my vote for the presidency was anything more than voting for the lesser of two evils. Not this time! History is being made, and as a result of Obama's use of emails and the internet to include all of us, we can claim ownership in the history that is being made. We are part of it. And Obama shares the victory, telling us that we made it happen.

Obama also appeals to all of us to participate in solving the problems that America faces, claiming that it cannot be done without all of us taking part. Republican or Democrat, no one can argue the need for all of us to reach out in service to create better communities. No one can argue the need for ethics and character to infiltrate business and government, to lead people and organizations toward a higher good, to be the "fore" thought, rather than the after thought. No one can argue the need for parents and other adults to "teach the children well," to raise them to be people of character, to serve as role models, so that the next generation will inherit a better world, a safe world, an environmentally livable world.

And so, when Obama says, What's required is...an appeal not to our easy instincts, but to our better angels," we are inspired to think about what's best, not what's easiest, to consider the paths of angels (or what they represent) rather than the opposite, to become active, rather than reactive or complacent. No longer should we apologize for living "the good" (as in good character) life, for loving "the good," and for advocating that everyone around us pursue "the good." Of course, what is "good" or best is not always easy to decide. But that doesn't let us off the hook for choosing "the good" when it is apparent, for aiming for what is best in each situation we encounter.

So, what will be your first step? What is the good you will to pursue this week? We get to choose and act. No one else imposes this on us. My choice is to more consistently speak kindly and gently to friends and family members. What will your choice be?