Tonight the debate between the Republican and the Democratic candidate is to be televised on ABC. It is difficult to imagine two personalities of starker contrast. Most Americans have already made a choice. Perhaps you are sympatico with a life-long bully, a male who has made his way by grift. He is an icon for laissez-faire economics, unrestricted capitalism. Money is “the measure of all things”. He stoops to shill a “God Bless the USA” Bible for $59.99.

The opposing candidate is a female woman of color. Harris is Indian and African-American by heritage. She is a prosecutor from California. Do you anticipate in her candidacy, pro-female, pro-immigrant, – an opening to future where everyone has a stake?

One cares for what is noble. Or one does not.

What future do you desire?

That you will have and much more.

Part I
What is noble?
What does the word “noble” still mean to us today?
How do noble people
reveal who they are,
how can they be recognized
under this heavy, overcast sky of incipient mob rule
that makes everything leaden
and opaque?

Part II
…it is faith that is decisive here,
faith that establishes rank order
(this old, religious formula now acquires a new and deeper meaning):

some fundamental certainty
that a noble soul has about itself,
something that cannot be looked for,
cannot be found,
and perhaps cannot be lost either.

The noble soul has
reverence for itself. –

Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by Judith Butler, aphorism 287