Editor’s Note: This week’s post is arriving Friday instead of next Tuesday because it is about the upcoming election and our privilege and duty to vote. Thanks for voting and encouraging friends and family to prepare to vote (a step I sometimes skip over) and vote. And if you can think of someone who might get something from this post, pass it on. Thanks.

Next Tuesday is election day. Each election in the past decade seems full of hype and drama about dire consequences. Perhaps, like me, you are tempted to check out and ignore the media overkill. A recent trip to the new Obama Presidential Library in Chicago reminded me of the importance of this and every election. I hope it encourages you to make sure everyone you know votes and to do everything you can to support candidates who advance the kind of community and nation you believe in.

The Obama Presidential Center, as the Library is formally called, is an amazing and inspiring testament to courage and hope. It is also an amazingly well-presented, honest, and balanced history lesson about America.

There are four levels of exhibits, plus an entry level and a top-floor Sky Room, which offers breathtaking views of Lake Michigan and Chicago and a moving end to the visit.

The 2nd floor is called “Toward a More Perfect Union.” It tells the story of “the people, events and lives that shaped the Obamas’ lives.” I was moved by the story of the Obamas’ lives, President Obama’s experience growing up estranged from his father, and how awareness of racial inequity in America shaped both Obamas and their lives and marriage.

The Obamas walked a tightrope as the first African-Americans to lead our country. They skillfully built a diverse coalition while keeping focused on taking every opportunity to end racism. The 3rd floor, called “Working for the Common Good,” highlights their commitment and skill in walking this tightrope.

The Library succinctly describes the tensions that divide us today: “Founding Contradictions: The Declaration of Independence (1776) sets forth a radical idea – ‘that all men are created equal.’ Yet some of the founders enslaved people. The country they created denied women and White men without property the right to vote and would remove Native Americans from their lands. America still struggles with enduring impacts of these contradictions. But the ideas embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights offer tools to correct these wrongs.”

On the same floor, we are reminded of the work of Progressives and Labor to advance reform. Social change leader Jane Addams is featured with her statement: “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain …until it is secured for all of us and our common good.”

The next two floors are poignant reminders of what the White House looks and acts like when it is indeed the “People’s House” (4th floor)…welcoming and inclusive of all Americans.

The fifth floor is a powerful civic lesson on the importance of voting and on how we can each contribute to the common good in our communities. Recently I watched a video of President Obama speaking at a rally in Michigan in support of U.S. Senator candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Governor candidate Jocelyn Benson. It is hard to imagine what it feels like to be the Obamas, having given eight years of their lives to public service and leadership, only to see so much of what they worked to change reversed and attacked by the Trump administration. Yet there he was, on the road, doing everything he can to encourage everyone to vote and to vote for leaders who respect and adhere to the values we espouse. The Presidential Library highlights the Obamas’ lifetime commitment to “Yes We Can” and continuing to work for “liberty and justice for all.”

Perhaps the best summary of the gift the Obamas offer each of us is found on the entrance lobby plaque: “I have always believed that hope is the stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.” (President Barack Obama, 2012)

“I’m asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours.” (President Barack Obama, 2017)

Michelle Obama described her commitment to hope in her moving speech to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, saying: “There is a chance to vanquish the demons of fear, division, and hate that have consumed the nation and continue pursuing the unfinished promise of this great nation.”

Each opportunity to vote is a chance to move our nation toward a better future. Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3, is a chance to help move us from a growing oligarchy of the rich toward a democracy that offers everyone a more hopeful and equitable world. Thanks for voting and encouraging everyone you know to do the same.