The Broken World

Re-reading (for the 5^th time?) Dickens’ David Copperfield, I’m struck by the ongoing cruelty of so many people David meets. His stepfather Mr. Murdstone and that evil man’s sister, the schoolmaster Creakle, the donkey-cart-driver who steals David’s trunk, the pawnbrokers who cheat him, the unforgettable Uriah Heep and more. A world where everyone seems to be look out for No. 1 (themselves) without a single thought as to being kind to others. In short, a mentality that grew to be the ethic of an entire political party a couple of centuries later across the ocean. 

 

But such inhumanity is balanced by the integrity and honesty of people like Peggoty and Ham, the innocence of Mr. Dick, the eccentric but generous Micawbers and David’s no-nonsense but good-at-heart Aunt, Betsy Trotwood. When the world has cast little David out time and time again, she takes him in and in a brief farewell as he goes off to a school she found to further his education, gives him this advice: 

 

“Never be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel.”

 

The three things that our false, mean, cruel President and all his supporters and enablers have failed time and time again, without an ounce of shame, hesitation or remorse. Ms. Trotwood adds: 

 

“Avoid these three vices and I can always be hopeful of you.”

 

So with some seven million people who took to the streets the other day to renew their determination to help heal our broken democracy through the power of the upcoming vote, hope is again on the horizon. Dear reader, please make sure that you and your family and cousins and neighbors and fellow churchgoers, workmates, what have you, will vote to end the nightmare of purposeful cruelty, greed and hate and restore civility and justice to a world that can’t survive without it. 

 

Vote.