Last year, I started the practice of blogging about something I was thankful for every day during the month of November. I used the prompts on a 30 day gratitude poster and found this a helpful way to think of some things that I wouldn't normally think of on a gratitude list. So I'm going to do the same thing this November, using a new list (to the left). I won't put most of these on Facebook because, let's be honest, I already overpost. But I would love to have you follow along, and if any of you want to join me, publicly or privately, that would be rad!To kick things off: A Moment of Inspiration You're Grateful For
It inspires me whenever a person chooses to go against peer pressure and speak up for what they believe is right. This can happen in so many contexts - school, the workplace, politics, pretty much anywhere there's a group of people who have formed a subculture with a prescribed way to act.
The specific moment I'm thinking of is when Senator John McCain made his midnight decision to vote against one of the Affordable Care Act repeals. The Republicans have been attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act since the last election, and this bill came closer than any of the previous attempts to succeeding. The vote on this bill was evenly split and any additional Republican who voted against it was going to cost the party the chance to repeal. For the Republicans, the chance to say that they repealed Obamacare would have been a big political win (and the inability to do so with a Republican majority in Congress and a Republican president is a political defeat).
Like his Republican colleagues, McCain wants to see changes to the ACA, but he felt like this particular repeal was being pushed through in the wrong way. The bill did not get refined by going through committee, it did not receive a Congressional Budget Office score (giving a good estimate of how much money would be spent or saved with the changes in legislation). It didn't ensure that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected. McCain felt there was not enough information, and not assurances that this bill was going to be better than the health care laws already in place. McCain knew he was costing his party major bragging rights and he probably faced tremendous pressure to vote with the party. Nevertheless...he persisted :), because he felt like it was the right thing to do. And I find that to be very inspiring.
Another notable thing about this is that, from reports, Senator McCain didn't lose friends over this decision to act on his conscience, even though it ruined a political opportunity for many of his colleagues. I think people can put themselves in a position to be the "moment of inspiration" by choosing to act consistently with your values in the thousands of smaller moments leading up to the big moment. I don't know that much about John McCain, and I'm sure there's "gotcha" moments in his past (like there would be for any of us), but in general I think he has earned respect from his Congressional colleagues by the way he has conducted himself during his long time in office. That makes it easier to be the maverick, vote your conscience, but not lose all your friendships in the process. I think this is true in other contexts, too - the more you act with integrity in life, the better positioned you will be to stand up for what's right and have people receive it well.
No comments:
Post a Comment