Can’t sit on my hands

The home stretch is here. So what does someone do who is in the last innings of their life, but cares about the kind of world they pass on to those who are in the first innings of theirs? The answer seems simple enough to me – canvass and phone bank for Hillary Clinton and other Democrats down the ticket every day over the next four days. And I would say the same thing even if I had the same concerns about Hillary that some others of my generation do.

For me the alternative – a Trump presidency – is so dangerous, so unpredictable, and so threatening to a livable future for younger generations here and elsewhere that I can’t sit on my hands and do nothing.

Nearly a half century ago I shared a vision with many others of my age. At its core was the transformation of our country and society into – to borrow a phrase from the incomparable Martin Luther King – “A Beloved Community.” We were obviously not successful. That I can live with, including all the mistakes we made along the way.

But what I can’t live with is fiddling over the next four days while the country, depending on the election’s outcome, could burn if Trump wins. What I can’t live with is doing nothing when someone who is so outside the norms of democratic governance could become the next president. And what I can’t live with is the thought that my inaction, if multiplied many times over by others, who just couldn’t find time in their busy lives or who are immobilized by the lack of a perfect candidate to get out the vote, might be the reason that younger generations – not least my two granddaughters, ages 4 and 6 – grow up with a thug in the White House who debases them and everything else that is sacred and beautiful in the world.

Time to go canvassing. Hope you’re doing the same.