In Lexington, Kentucky, the new mayor-elect, Jim Gray, took my father out to McDonald's a couple weeks ago. Until Dad fell last month, he had been working on Gray's campaign, and he felt bad that he wasn't able to squire the candidate around to some retired-guy coffee groups as he promised he would.
But no problem, about a week ago (and more importantly, a week before the election), Candidate Gray stops by the house, picks up my dad and drives him to the coffee groups. How many votes did Gray snag that morning? Maybe half a dozen. Frankly, I haven't heard of such a neighborly act from a politician in a long time. Maybe ever.
I couldn't vote for Jim Gray, of course. And in our corner of the world the election wasn't as dramatic as it was for much of the country. But I like to think that there are hundreds more Jim Grays out there today — I'd like to think that at least in a few places, the good guys won.