Scared to Do the Right Thing

I am often scared to do the right thing.  Doing the right thing has such unpredictable consequences on account of the fact that I haven’t done it much before.

It’s so much easier to do the thing I’ve always done or the thing that everyone else is doing (which occasionally is the right thing – but not very often.)  In doing the thing I’ve done before, at least I know what the result will be.  It may be a terrible result, but familiar, and therefore less frightening.

The scariest part about doing the right thing is that I may turn out to be wrong.  Notwithstanding, I know I must try and figure out what the right thing is – and then convince someone else to do it with me so that it won’t be so scary.

I think it would be better to do the right thing and realize later that I was wrong, than to refrain from doing the right thing and find out later that I was right and, doggone it, I should have had the guts to go and do it.

Now I am going to try and apply this philosophy to the act of voting.  There is a candidate I really like who has always said the same things and done the same things and is actually a pleasure to listen to and does not tickle my epiglottis one bit.  That is a rare feat for a politician.  I do not know what in tarnation will happen if this candidate wins.   That is scary.  Uncharted territory is always scary, even if you are pretty sure the territory you are leaving needs to be left.

Then there is the candidate who is winning.  We all know what will happen if this candidate wins: nothing.  And that is why it is easy to vote for him, and why we think everyone else will vote for him.  This candidate does tickle my epiglottis, vigorously.  But I am sensitive that way.

The funny thing is, I have a hunch that the winning candidate may not actually be the favorite.  The winning candidate is the one whom everyone thinks is everyone else’s favorite.

I will vote for the scary candidate if you will.

– M. Ragazzo

P.S.  Here is a poll taken by phone of 446 people that says the scary candidate is in third place.

And here is an online poll of 200,000 people  that says the scary candidate won the debate – big time.