When I voted this morning, I ran into three Glenn Church members, not in line to vote (no wait when I voted) but serving as poll workers. Mackay Asbury is the poll manager there at Druid Hills High School; Ellen McFee checked me in; and Dan Macfarlane was monitoring and assisting voters.
And that is why I feel optimistic today. The backbone of American representative democracy is people like Dan, Ellen, and Mackay, who do what is right and good in their communities on election day and, for that matter, every other day, too. They are our neighbors, and today they are serving us and the highest ideals of our nation. That’s big, folks, and it reminds me of what I believe, and it gives me hope.
Call me foolish, but I truly believe in the goodness of Americans because, through my years, I have come across a lot of really good Americans. I don’t agree with all of them, but I have seen the good they do; I have seen them care for neighbors and strangers. I believe in them, not necessarily their political opinions or passions, but them.
I know; I know. These are ugly days. And I am as tired of it all as you. I have grown weary of listening to politicians—yes, our president among them—who have swapped any pretense of statesmanship for fear-mongering, belittling insults that we wouldn’t tolerate from our children, and divisive pandering—and, yes, neither our president nor his party holds a monopoly on any of the ugliness.
But in the midst of the noise and the fears of what the days ahead might bring, I am hopeful, because good people keep doing good things. I know folks here at Glenn who work faithfully and tirelessly to feed the hungry, while others are tending to the needs of the incarcerated, and others are taking real action against racism, and others are seeing to the needs of the elderly who cannot afford essentials, and others, in the midst of a pandemic, are quietly checking on their neighbors and their fellow church members. My preacher word for all of this goodness is grace. Grace is care shown for the other; grace is acceptance of the neighbor; grace gives. And grace abounds, still. Just look around and count the gracious people.
On the national level, an unprecedented 100 million Americans voted early this year, while millions more of us ventured out today to our local polling places and the familiar faces awaiting us there. I confess that at heart I am a skeptic when it comes to the natural inclinations of us human beings, but today I see millions of reasons for hope. I believe that, despite all our grousing and nitpicking and finger-pointing, we Americans take this citizenship stuff pretty seriously. There are still shared values that guide us, and despite the ugliness at the fringes, we are a people who believe in doing good for each other.
So, today, before the votes are counted, I sing America, and I sing gracious people like you who serve every day, and I sing good people like Ellen, Dan, and Mackay, who guard quietly and faithfully the rights you and I claim on this election day 2020.
In Christ,
Rev. Mark Westmoreland