As we move into dark times in America, I think it is increasingly important to be clear about what I value.
I believe that all life has worth. Every person should have as much freedom as possible to live and find their own fulfillment. We should always approach others from a position of humility and respect, kindness and fairness. We should both tolerate and celebrate differences. No person has more value than another. Violence, if it solves a problem, should always be a last resort.
I believe we should be responsible stewards. We should make efficient use of resources, repair things when they break, and consider new expenditures carefully. We should preserve the environment we live in, so that it can continue to sustain all of us. We should not create problems for others. We should protect ourselves, our families, our communities, and others from harm. We should remember each other and how we got to where we are.
I believe that we should leave the world better than we found it. We should improve things for the next generation. We should create pathways for those less fortunate to reach a better life. We should correct hazards and injustices, even if we weren’t the cause, just because they are there. We should put more good into the world. We should solve problems. And we should work together to solve the problems that are too big for anyone to handle on their own.
I believe that we can and should use our faculties to investigate the world around us. We have the capacity to determine what is true and what is not, based on observation and experimentation. With our body of knowledge, we can predict the effects and consequences of future actions. No other framework for understanding reality and its behaviors has been as effective as science. We can determine whether we are living up to my other values, and how to change our approach if not. We can override our own instincts and emotions to determine what are the truly effective means to get the outcomes we want, even if they seem counterintuitive.
I believe that we should be honest, straightforward, and honorable. We should say true facts and true beliefs. We should stand up for what is right, and call out what is wrong. We should try to fulfill our commitments. We should approach any need to change a commitment from a position of honesty, gather agreement from anyone involved, and be clear about what we are doing and why.
I believe that we can always learn and improve. No one person has all the answers, even in our own domain of expertise. And we can always learn from others with different knowledge, background, or experiences than our own. Children can teach their parents. We can learn from failure, or change our approaches to adapt to new circumstances. Other people can raise awareness of problems that we didn’t know existed. Experts provide a collective brain that we can tap to find out more about anything.
I value joy and happiness. Play is important for kids and adults. Art, culture, sport, and creativity have their own worth. We should celebrate beauty and wonder whenever we find it.
It is these values that lead me to support things like constitutional democracy, universal healthcare, climate change prevention and mitigation, environmental protection, restorative criminal justice, investment in public education, and investments in science, technology, infrastructure, and the arts. It is these values that lead me to advocate for a foreign policy based on collaboration and shared investment rather than deterrence by force. It is these values that lead me to believe that we should limit the ability of the rich to get richer, and limit the role of corporations to coopt our governance. It is these values that have made it impossible for me to support Republicans in the last several election cycles and place me squarely in opposition to a regime based on patronage, cronyism, bigotry, doublethink, bullying, and force.
It is because of these values that I am profoundly sad about our society’s abdication of responsibility when confronted with large-scale problems; our collective turning away from those things that make our society valuable in the first place.
It is because of these values that I still have hope.