Join Me, Please.  Let’s Find our Way Back to Goodness

By Andrew L. Pate, Jr.

America’s heart of gold has not gone away; It has simply retreated, and only for a short while, we trust.

Often, when we think of America’s greatness, we mistakenly define it in terms of power, as in military power or in the superior influence we have over other nations.

Better yet, we should be thinking of the moral power of the Goodness in America to help other people and improve the ways all people relate to Mother Nature.

That is Goodness with a capital “G” – the real thing, not a pretense, when our actions, at least most of them, actually work to improve both the quality and the quantity of life everywhere.

Okay, so it appears in the present day that Goodness has become merely a desire, an empty wish, so to speak.  How then do we recover it?  That is the question.

First, of course, we have to admit that we’ve put other qualities first, like personal comfort and the acquisition of money and worldly possessions.

To state the consequences bluntly: our love and lust for money has placed our once great nation in serious danger.

Secondly, we must relearn the essential elements of moral decency; like how to respect one another, how to welcome and befriend strangers, how to forgive and move on. and most importantly, we need to redefine our national goals in terms of their moral impact.

But is such relearning possible?   Our churches have become highly divisive and controversial.  Our educational system has been tainted by a corruption in which neither students nor teachers are able to study and teach with dignity and respect.

We can do better.  We must.  And we can begin our path to recovery at the ballot box by voting in persons on the basis of their Goodness; Also, we can show more respect for one another, which means of course, that we must define our Goodness in such a manner that we live it out more fully in our daily lives.  Our churches can lead by ridding themselves of sexual abuse and by treating the lives of women and minorities as valuable as anyone's, including the lives of the unborn.

Goodness is a grass roots quality.  If absent, ever tree, every branch is in grave danger.

Impossible for Goodness to be reborn?  No.  Difficult?  Yes.  For Goodness in 2022 is the same has it as always been:  it is up to us, up to you and me to live it.

September 21, 2022

College Station, Texas