(#5099) Good trouble

      Doing the right thing for the right reason is not an assured formula. How long have women been fighting for equal rights with men? How long has racism overcome our best efforts to eradicate it? How long will poverty be tolerated while the wealthy add to their wealth? How long can democracy stand when the insurrectionists are allowed to run the government? So many how long questions we have here in America. It seems that doing the right thing is not welcomed by all. For several decades I have been waiting for people who vote for republicans to rise above them and vote them out. It hasn't happened and each time for a long time I was astonished when they kept voting for republicans.
     Not any more! I expect that no matter how cruel and dishonorable republicans are their voters will tolerate them. Which speaks to why? I get that tradition is a key, because the saying of we have always voted for republicans is often heard as an excuse. Yet shooting oneself and others in the foot shouldn't be a tradition anyone would continue with once it is felt. So trying to know why anyone sees helping people as a bad thing is important to understand. I expect that the old survival of the fittest concept of me first is one reason and possibly hatred for anyone who is not like themselves another reason. But honestly it is inescapable that our lives are so intertwined and that having negativity as a default position is not productive.
     So how do we get to the point where we can illustrate the correctness of humanity? We get into good trouble. We make stands where the point is moral, ethical, and honorable, to care and wonder for our species. We do not let the worst of who we are dictate the path forward for all of us. We stand up to their demagoguery with facts and the truth of things. We get into good trouble as our default position so that any one who sees us knows that we are not the problem and instead we are the solution. Fighting the rest of our lives for what should be the manifest destiny of our species. Good people doing amazing things for all and the existence around us.