I’ve covered most everything I could think to say in previous responses to this prompt, except maybe an exhortation to hold onto whatever optimism you can muster when unduly loud voices try to make you think there is no place for virtue or ideals in this world; that you aren’t mistaken or a pollyanna for taking the high road and believing that good people exist and some of them are in public service and there is at least a spark in them that fires a desire to do good and right things.
And to hell with that relative handful of wildly rich, self-interested naysayers and skeptics who have little faith in humanity, who choose to never rise above the petty jealousies and dark world views and deprived childhoods and tired thinking that clouds their vision and perpetuates division and pecking orders.
There are things no one can take away from us, among them being self-respect and a capacity for envisioning a better future, and maybe an evolved take on what it means to be alive.
