Wednesday, November 04, 2015

Post election thoughts from Angola, Indiana by Justin Young...

Yesterday was election day. I lost. I accepted it as part of Democracy. We can't lose if we don't run. I did not have any tears until this moment. I have copied Justin Young's Facebook post.
Thank you for those words.

26 mins · Edited · 
Yesterday was election day and the majority of comments in my feed were of disappointment, disillusionment ("Well, I voted for the lesser of two evils..."), or moral ambiguity ("Doesn't matter who we vote for!"). While I can't argue how you might feel personally, I can argue that you're wrong.
Lou Ann Homan is a coworker, a teacher, a storyteller, a newspaper columnist, and a friend. Yesterday she lost her election. That's fair--democracy worked. Her opponent, who I do not know, may very well be a wonderful person. I can't say. But I can say she is a wonderful, giving, and caring human being. She loves her town and would have served it admirably. She has already--serving on a variety of committees and organizing the recent singing on the circle event. She brings the arts to a small town that isn't always sure that it wants them. She is not a lesser of two evils. She is not the same as anyone else we could put into office.
People default to that talk not because it is intellectual or insightful, but because it is easy. It's a surrender in the face of a complicated world filled with conflicting shades of gray. Each spring I spend a semester ranting to my students about the dangers of how the media manipulates us through things like agenda setting, framing, etc. But the last day of class I warn them not to allow any of that to make them cynical. Cynicism is the intellectualism of stupid people. No curiosity--just disillusionment.

The world is not changed by the cynics who have given up, but by good people who refuse to.

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