Does Good Always Win in the End?

Does Good Always Win in the End?

This past week, we witnessed what many of us feared and expected: the signing of the budget bill, brazenly championed by Trump and his Republican enablers. Despite the overwhelming knowledge of the cruelty and damage embedded in that legislation, the numbers were stacked against us.

It passed anyway.

It was a gut punch—another in a series of brutal blows that have marked the first six months of Trump’s return to power. And to be honest, with the backdrop of Independence Day fireworks crackling in the sky, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of it all. A holiday that once stirred feelings of pride and hope now carried a shadow of doubt. My hope has been shaken again.

And so I found myself asking the question that so many of us wrestle with when things feel broken:

Does good always win in the end?

The Honest Truth

The simple answer?

Not always. At least not in every moment, not in every battle, and not on every timeline we wish it would.

History makes this painfully clear. Evil can rise. Justice can be delayed. Tyrants can be celebrated. Harmful policies can pass. And people—especially the most marginalized—can suffer deeply under systems that were never built for them in the first place.

But the deeper truth?

 Good doesn’t win by default. It wins when we fight for it.

What History Teaches Us

The moral arc of the universe may bend toward justice, but it only bends because people grab hold of it with everything they’ve got and pull like hell.

Good wins when we:

• Speak up when silence is easier.

• Show up when it's hard.

• Care when the world says not to.

• Protect each other even when we’re scared.

• Keep going, even when we’re tired.

  
  

There are moments when the tide of injustice feels too powerful to stop—and yet, people still resist. From Stonewall to Selma, from Pride to protest, from the ballot box to the street corner—we have never stopped fighting.

So… Does Good Win?

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. But in the bigger picture, over the long arc, when we commit, when we link arms, when we refuse to give up, good can win.

Maybe the question isn’t:

Does good always win? 

But rather:

How will we keep showing up for good, so it can?

A Hope Worth Holding

We are not in a moment of happy endings. We are in a moment of hard reckonings, uncertain futures, and moral courage.

But I believe this:

 ✨ Hope isn’t the belief that everything will be okay. 

✨ Hope is the commitment to make something better, even if we don’t get to see the result ourselves.

So I’m holding space for my grief. For my anger. For my shaken hope.

But I’m also holding space for something else: 

My resolve.

My people.

My belief in the power of collective goodness.

And I’ll keep showing up for good, not because I know it will win, but because I know it deserves to.

A Personal Reflection

I’m on the cusp of having lived half a century, born two hundred years after the founding of this country in 1776. And I can say this with certainty: I’ve never been more worried in my lifetime than I am right now; I’ve never been more tired.

This weekend, I’m taking time for myself, not as a retreat, but as a reset.

Why? 

Because rest is a radical act. 

Because caring for ourselves is how we stay in the fight.

So I can rise tomorrow and keep going. 

Because I still believe this country is worth fighting for. 

Because I believe our future—yours, mine, our children’s—is worth fighting for.

And the truth is, more people now see Trump for the liar, the fraud, the danger that he is. Maybe—just maybe—our win is closer than we think.

But there’s only one way to find out:

We keep showing up. We keep speaking out. We keep fighting the good fight—together.