Local opinion: Doing the moral thing

Recently, I read Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood.” It is the classic, true-crime story of the notorious 1959 murders of four family members in a small town in Kansas. Two older children were not there and survived the massacre.

The book makes you think about many things, but one thing stood out to me. We learn that the family’s father, Herb Clutter, had given his insurance agent a check for a new, double indemnity life insurance policy the day before he died. The next day, the agent still had the check in his pocket when he learned of the murders. He consulted his boss. Capote quotes him saying, “It appeared that legally we weren’t obliged to pay. But morally — that was another matter. Naturally, we decided to do the moral thing.”

This really struck me — how quaint it sounds today. But to at least one person, it felt natural to do the right thing. When I think of the good things about the mid-20th century, this is the kind of thing that comes to mind. It was the time when my own parents, conservatives, believed in doing right by people. They were from small towns in the Midwest as well.

Growing up beside my parents in the ’60s and ’70s, time after time I saw them do the moral thing rather than the easy thing. They were active in a church that was meaningful to the community. They quit their membership in a country club that excluded minorities. My mother worked for fair housing and taught health in schools.

Of course, there were a lot of things that weren’t so great during those times. But I think there was a moral center to be found in much of small-town America that is what some people are hearkening back to today. My parents came from that center, as did the Kansas insurance man.

This election season, we have a presidential candidate who, time after time, harkens back to the mid-century as a time of greatness. He wants to make America great — like those times — again. But I would argue that he’s not doing the things that really made America great then and what still makes it great today. He’s stoking mistrust about immigrants, people of color and non-Christian religions. He’s lying for political gain, even when it puts poll workers, FEMA workers, and Capital Police in danger.

He’s been found liable for sexual abuse in the case brought by E. Jean Carroll. He speaks in dark, insensitive terms about women, political opponents, people with disabilities, and sometimes even those in his own party who could be allies. His business cheated. It was found liable for exaggerating the size of properties that were being used as collateral for loans. At so many junctures, he’s done the easy thing, not the moral thing.

None of the ways the MAGA candidate talks, behaves, and schemes would have been acceptable back during those times—those times when he says America was great. The way we keep America great is to reject hate, reject the personal attacks and reject the vilification. We need to pull together in the best American tradition rather than allow wedges to be driven between us.

The way we keep America great is not to see what you can get away with. It’s also not to legislate morality. It is simply to do the right thing. Do the moral thing.