Coincidentally enough, my column this week falls on Election Day. I can’t ignore, therefore, the significance of the 2016 presidential sweepstakes.
What does tomorrow look like? Will the country vote for optimism as embodied in a seriously flawed candidate? Will the country vote for dark days and unpredictable behavior as embodied in the other candidate?
From my questions, it’s easy to tell my choice. It’s easy to tell that I made my choice with scant enthusiasm. It’s easy to tell that the other option scares and disgusts me.
What pleases, most of all, is that this unusually ugly and distasteful campaign will be over. No more attack ads, endless media coverage and fear of anger-filled conversations. As a KAL cartoon in the Baltimore Sun illustrated, the stain of mud on us from the ceaseless accusations may, just may, wash away.
Selfishly, I would like my newspaper reading—still mostly done offline—to focus on something other than this miserable, often shallow campaign. When I read the comics, maybe I can do so without the crying need to escape from coverage of a campaign that history may treat more kindly than is true at the moment.
I realize that come tomorrow morning, Nov. 9, 2016, that life in Talbot County will essentially be the same. The health of our rivers will still be concerning. The oyster population will still draw conflict between the watermen and environmentalists. Opioid addiction will be a major problem. Poverty will still be prevalent. Traffic on Route 50 will continue to increase. And our families will still provide comfort—and worry at times.
What gives me pause, as revealed in this presidential campaign, is the socio-economic alienation felt by so many in our nation, a prevalent and justifiable distrust of political leadership and a disdain for of the economic, cultural and academic elite.
From my reading and listening, the worst malady afflicting our country and its underlying democracy is lack and loss of hope.
Many feel helpless and hopeless, if the pundits and academicians are correct. Jobs that were once available are no longer so in the minds of some mired in unemployment and substance abuse. Ability to move up in our society seems unlikely to some whose wages have remained stagnant.
As a citizen, I always thought I had the responsibility to leave the world in better shape for those who follow. I’m not sure that our nation and our world are better than what some of us inherited. Saying that, I do believe my daughters live in a nation uninhibited by bias toward women. I do believe that technology has improved our lives. I do believe that health care has advanced beyond what my parents could have envisioned. I do believe that education has improved at all levels, though so much more can be done to include those whose skills are more vocational than academic.
Besides a lack of hope, I think another national affliction is lack of trust. I read about scandalous behavior in our religious, academic, military and economic institutions—and I cringe with dismay. When I read or hear about a sorely bad ethical transgression, I question my faith in an institution that I hitherto respected. I don’t believe I was naïve to trust a four-star general or a Catholic bishop or a university president or a renowned football coach or a corporate CEO.
The past Saturday, I attended a funeral in Baltimore for my wife’s 90-year-old aunt, a woman who never allowed life’s upsets to get how down. Her favorite response when asked how she was doing, even in her declining days, was “wonderful.” Therefore, it was a perfectly appropriate that “American the Beautiful” was sung as part of the service. The second verse drew my attention:
“O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw
Confirm the soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law!”
I opt for optimism and hope in our polarized country. I vote for “America the Beautiful.”
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
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