Choose to be happy on election day

Please, let’s not allow ourselves to become pessimistic about our election on November 8.

Disappointment, disillusionment, or displeasure are acceptable as long as their expression is civil, mature, and serves the common good. After all, free expression can be very good for our republic and for our souls.

Pessimism, however, is completely inappropriate and out of place. Yes, feel free to express pessimism if that is what you feel. However, ask yourself: Is pessimism the rational choice? And, yes, whatever you feel is your choice. Does pessimism serve you well? Does pessimism serve your fellow citizens?

I’ve listened to everyone from comedians to news commentators to even my own pastor make fun of this election. Some fun is worth making, either because it lightens the mood or it reveals the truth through satire. Yes, humor can inform and uplift society in a contentious election cycle.

However, some of the humor that I’m hearing, reading, and seeing is not constructive humor; it’s pessimism in disguise. It validates self-pity and the worse impulses of the electorate.

Pessimism neither makes us smarter nor stronger. It’s a bad habit that weakens all of our better habits. Pessimism is what keeps people from going to the voting booth. Pessimism is what keeps people from giving thanks for the right to vote and the right to say whatever they want to say without fear of government-sanctioned persecution. Pessimism is what turns people so far inward they are unable to reach out to those around them. Pessimism is what turns the mind fat and soft, lazy and weak. Pessimism is what excuses reason and makes room for fanaticism, fatalism, isolationism, and racism.

Pessimism is kryptonite to our republic and the values for which it stands.

So whatever you do on November 8, whoever you choose for President of the United States, and whoever wins the election, do all of us a great service: Do not choose pessimism.

Choose gratitude. Choose optimism. Choose proaction.

Because what the United States of America needs now is not a president; it needs citizens who have the positive outlook to imagine a better future and work to build it.

Onward and upward.