Today, finally, is election day and I will say no more about it. 
Except this:
For sixteen months we’ve been treated by the candidates, the media and our own friends to a daily avalanche of vicious insults and variously skilled manipulations of truth, maybe more than at any time in American history. This has been the loudest, nastiest, most confusing period of campaigning I can recall. You don’t know who to believe; facts have been thoroughly muddied with flat-out lies and baseless character assassination. Even our own family members have taken us to task.
I suppose we can blame much of it on the ability of modern technology to lift an ugly aspect of human nature to a higher level. We suddenly live in a world in which deeply personal fear and anger hit the fan at the speed of a Tweet before we can think reasonably to stuff them back into the darker side of ourselves where they belong.
By itself social media is no more capable of destruction than a gun, though both can be dangerous tools in the hands of the unskilled, inexperienced and hot headed. People believe what they wish to believe and seem to have an unhealthy desire to spread alarming hearsay without bothering to do the slightest bit of investigation or even to wonder if an accusation is true. In modern America all we need to find our passionate convictions is a ridiculous Facebook rumor and we make it our day’s work to share the misinformation as widely as possible. Everybody wants to spread unverified so-called news like the fertile manure it resembles; then, we fight about it.
Recently I’ve been studying George Washington’s Farewell Address and am struck by how prescient the Father of Our Country was. With all the love and hope of a father for his adolescent nation he warned of the dark human inclinations that may lead to its destruction. Chief among these he cautioned against greed and cunning becoming embedded in the offices of government and seeded by unholy alliances spawned by political parties.
Washington charged the nation’s citizens as sternly as their servants to educate themselves and take stock in the future with the tenacity of human beings free, for the first time anywhere, to acquire and hold property, to create their own lives and to pursue their dreams. These gifts were purchased in blood, he reminded us, and may only be kept with wisdom and knowledge.
He also reminded us – in his own words: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.”
Where are we at this point in our history? What would George say about our country 220 years after he admonished us to pay attention, to love our neighbors and to remain clean in spirit?
Maybe we shouldn’t Tweet about it until we’ve all done some soul searching.
Maybe we can do better.
