Another message to my progressive friends in the wake of the 2016 election: the sun will come up. OK, it didn’t for me today, in Waynesboro (a steady rain all day, fittingly), but it will, tomorrow, the next day, eventually.
Your conservative friends, co-workers, family members, whatever, will tell you that America somehow survived eight years of Barack Obama. We can remember that America somehow survived eight years of George W. Bush.
We’ve been through the farce that was the Clinton impeachment in the ’90s, Nixon and his enemies list and Watergate.
We’ve endured assassinations, world wars, cold wars, a civil war.
This, too, shall pass.
I still believe that the arc of the moral universe is long, and that it bends toward justice. There are lessons to be learned from this most recent political campaign, first and foremost that we need to be more forthcoming about what we stand for.
I believe in a nation that values educational opportunity for all, probably selfishly so, because it was education that allowed me to rise above growing up in a trailer park raised by a single mom to graduate from a top public university and eventually build a lucrative career in the media, broadcasting and business.
I believe in a nation that values economic opportunity, again selfishly, for people who come from humble circumstances like I did, and deserve the chance to work hard to improve their lot in life, but also academically, because I believe that the more the wealth is spread around to more people, the better off we all are.
I believe in universal healthcare, as a fundamental human right, and as an important foundation for a strong economy, with a healthy workforce likely to be more productive, and healthy companies more able to compete in the global economy.
I believe, most of all, in liberty, justice and equality for all, across racial, ethnic, gender, orientation, religious and philosophical lines.
I’m not going to be shamed into taking my light and hiding it under my bed now that a number that is not even a plurality of my fellow countrymen has spoken and decided that my values are at least temporarily not the national values, and I’m not going to shy away from engaging with those who would shout me down in the name of personality politics, as we all saw happen often in the campaign season just concluded.
My response to this challenge is to do even more than I’ve done before.
These days, I tend to bore folks with stories about running, but one fits well here. This past weekend, I had the honor of being able to run the New York City Marathon, the world’s largest marathon, but dealing with a few nagging injuries, I finished more than an hour slower than my personal-best time.
It would be natural to feel defeated, but I resolved the next day, still literally sore from the race, that I would begin training for my next marathon with the goal of not only beating my time from this weekend, and to have the next one set a new personal best, but to train with the goal in mind of qualifying for another prestigious marathon, the Boston Marathon.
Tuesday’s election results sting, but as with marathons, there’s always another one coming ’round. Time to get back out on the road to start running toward the next goal, folks.
Column by Chris Graham
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