Warren Buffett, long known for his decency, wrote, “Kindness is costless but also priceless,” in a recent letter, and a friend included it in her New Year’s card to me: “Whether you’re religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.”

There has been so much going on nationally, and kindness doesn’t seem to be the theme in much of it. I thought that if I needed a boost, you might, too.

I’m not going into details here, but I have to tell you, the US treatment of people and other countries is disturbing. It seems Christians are one of the acceptable pawns for justification and credibility to the choices and actions being made, but as a Christian, I see no connection to what’s happening with “What would Jesus do?”

I’m not political, I couldn’t even list the Presidents in order or tell you if they were Red or Blue. It just hasn’t been a “thing” for me until the last few years. But I do know a lot about truth, fairness, equality, and human dignity. I also know my fair share about mental illness and the often evil downside of power and abuse. I also love our country at a gut-level. Two quotes help anchor me with hope:

The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence (in operation since 1789): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Abraham Lincoln in 1863 (Civil War officially over in 1866): . . . “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I have hung my hat on those words since birth, as my household was under the control of a proud WWII Veteran. I understand that a majority of us have different upbringings, and that patriotism, the Constitution, and respecting laws have not been pounded into everyone else’s consciousness. And, I own my priorities and belief systems.

That said, I urge my readers to just hang onto the values we’ve inherited. Values that our sons and daughters didn’t have to fight or die for. I believe together we can have a clear voice to stop the things we individually don’t like, while protecting the foundation of what we love and treasure.

Closing with a 1943 quote by FDR at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans: “We have faith that future generations will know here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.”

We, my friends, are those generations. Let’s not disappoint.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

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