How do we Vote? How should we?

VOTE?

THERE IS NO DEARTH OF POLLS AND OPINIONS AND COMMENTARIES ON how we might vote in elections at any levels of government. National elections every four years, both at the head of the ballot and down ballot, attract the most attention, and cause the most frustration. How should we determine who to vote for? What are our criteria that can overcome the noise and the tit for tat of the campaigns? 

We can begin by recognizing that we don't actually vote for a candidate. We vote for ourselves, our own values, our own aspirations, our own expectations, our own dignity, our own honor, and for who we are. If we find a candidate that meets most of our crieria, we fill in the proverbial oval against his or her name on the ballot.

When I go to the voting booth, I vote for my values, not for a candidate, by asking these six questions.

I value being humble in my interactions. Which candidate exhibits more humility than arrogance?

I value being accountable for my actions. Which candidate exhibits more accountability than unaccountability?

I value speaking the truth. Which candidates exhibits more truthfulness than being untruthful?

I value being fair in exercising justice. Which candidate exhibits more fairness than partiality in exercising social and economic justice in the broadest sense?

I value being decent in speech and action. Which candidate exhibits more decency than obscenity in speech and action?

I value obedience to the rule of law. Which candidate exhibits obedience to the law more often than skirting the law?

Hmm. There seems to be a problem here. What about the cost of living, inflation, jobs, immigration, abortion, and what have you? In their esseence these are all different aspects of fairness in economic and social justice, at any level - local, national and international. Overall exercise of fairness in social and economic justice will lead to a rational and healthy sustainable balance in all these aspects in soicety at large. All I need to ask for is the exercise of fairness in justice.

The bottom line is this. When I mark my ballot, I vote for my values. I vote for whichever candidate personifies my values, or at least personifies more of them than other candidates. 

This is important. My vote defines me. I aspire to be defined by my support of my values, not by negelct of my values. 

Maybe all voters want to be defined by their values, and vote in support of their values. All power to them!

"Muslims are good people." What Does That Mean?

[Note: This first paragrpah is from a blog I wrote in 2014.]

In May this year, my wife and I were returning to Virginia from a visit to Arizona. On the plane across the aisle sat a woman who turned to my wife and asked if she was Muslim. Getting an affirmative answer, she volunteered that she was Mormon and that she was on her way to Virginia to attend the wedding of her son to a Muslim young woman. We congratulated her and wished them well. She explained that her ex-husband, who sat in the row in front of her, was against this marriage and did not want to go to the wedding at all. Then they decided to ask their church leader about this. The church leader told them, “Muslims are good people.” That changed the ex-husband’s mind, and now they and their two sons were headed to Virginia to attend the wedding of their newly converted Muslim son with a Muslim woman. It so happened that as we waited in the baggage area, my wife was even able to meet this young Muslim women who had come to pick them up. All because the good church leader expressed his sentiment clearly: “Muslims are good people.”

Lately, now in 2024, I have been thinking about what the church leader meant when he said, “Muslims are good people?”