Thank you for this beautiful letter to America. I will save this and read it again and again for future reference. We need to see and hear the very touching message from Rev. Warnock and realize the danger of this very very close election! Thank you Steven, for reminding us "Good Governance Matters" indeed!
“Optimism is the belief that things are going to get better. Hope is the belief that we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it does need courage to hope.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Thank you @StevenBeschoss for recognizing and reminding us of the highest ideals for which we can, and should, strive. The Warnock win is tinged a bit this morning with the NYT Breaking News I just received that Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democrat party and becoming an Independent, with no indication as to which partAnother person in our group has just quoted Rabbi Joinathany she will caucus. We should have seen this coming; but I think the timing was deliberately made this week, to take down the 51-49 majority the Democrat party has in the Senate. She is clearly making a statement that she is not going to allow the Democrats the clear majority in the Senate which would give them control over who chairs committees and other advantages that were discussed earlier this week. I want to share your optimism in this country and its future. However, I must applaud another person in this group (Al Bellenchia) for quoting Rabbi Jonathan Sack; and I paraphrase: Optimism is passive. Hope is active. We must have that hope and we must act. A lot of damage was done to our country during the previous administration; and a lot of cult followers still spread the disinformation and conspiracy theories of that administration. You noted them in your writing. I fear that just as Kari Lake is trying to burn down AZ on her way out, the former president may attempt (ok let's face it, he has already tried) to burn down our democracy on his way out. Maybe 45 will face justice in future DOJ proceedings; but the cult that he created and leaves behind is alive and well, and not going anyplace soon. And not facing any judicial action. How much power will they have without their leader. Who will become the leaders of their party. Will it be the MTG wing of the GOP. Does that wing still have enough life in them to do damage to our country ? I'm 72; and I wonder if I will see return to normalcy in my lifetime. I'm trying very much to cling to the Hope that Rabbi Sacks upheld. I'm very much trying to be active and relevant as I was during my college years when I demonstrated and fought for civil rights, fought against racial injustice, and tried to end the Viet Nam War. However, although back then I thought of all of those goals as an uphill battle, in retrospect, those challenges pale in comparison to what we are facing now. The entire concept of the experiment of a Democratic Republic that our Founding Fathers created is on the line. We must summon up all of the Hope and energy we have within us. We can't leave it to others and then later wonder what happened. We all have a responsibility in creating the future we want for our country . And the time is now. As Hillel said: If not now, When?
Senator Raphael Warnock is my favorite Senator. (I live in Evanston Il). He is so hard-working every single day, bringing positive change to so many on so many issues. He is so articulate, humane, full of empathy, dignified with so much grace. However, after months of volunteering on GOTV my brain is tired. But now with Sinema’s decision to become an independent I had my first fund raising text at 11 am Friday morning from Ruben Gallego, a person with impeccable credentials (Iraq war veteran included, worked his way through Harvard) who is currently representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District (Phoenix). I wrote over 1500 postcards to voters.org for candidates in multiple states 4.5 months, did hours of texting from my Mac for various candidates from “When We All Vote”, an organization started by Michelle Obama, and various candidates, and for the first time in my life contributed more than I should have to various candidates. I’m not even a “political animal” like my son & an aunt who was one of the founders of Emily’s List. I’m taking the rest of the month off from politics but after the first of the year I will be working on registering young voters as they turn 18 in whatever way is recommended. They are our future. Check out @VictorShi2020 and @VotersofTomorrow on Twitter and rest up. The fight to save our Democracy really never ends.
Senator Warnock seems to be a rare find for American gov't. His faith and love of people stand him higher above so many who are in it for self aggrandizement, or in the case of Sinema, money. My brother was a career Air Force chaplain whose aim was to bring about love and friendship among the people he served. So different from the "new" class of evangelicals.
Both parties have had their share of the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I have always felt the Democrats sided with the needs of people, not corporations although they are often now called elitists. If elitist stands for being educated, knowledgeable of government's workings, using such positions for the good of the people, then so be it. Look at all President Biden has accomplished in a short time for all. As for Republicans, their only objectives have been to build a wall and revenge against Democrats and democracy, re: trump's desire to rid us of the Constitution. Nothing else.
I do wish a different word than "fight" could be used for accomplishing things. More civil : advocate,promote, stand for,defend. And I am not so sure I agree with Sen. Warren's sentence about government doing together what none can do alone. trump was government for four years, and look what he did alone.
Kari Lake's whining lament rings hollow, like the fading echo in a vast canyon. She is trying to stay relevant through her nonsensical attachment to Trump. His Show is over. Raphael Warnock and Elizabeth Warren give me hope. Their words are eloquent and wise. After all, the purpose of any good enterprise in business or government, is to effect change for the better., something we should all aspire to.
Every day I read about extreme bills put forth by right wingers &  wonder how they never read the part about “separation of church and state”? Such hubris & disrespect for the over 322 religions practiced in USA!
I agree with you Steven, and with Senator Warren. Good governance means everyone is treated with respect, right off the bat. When you respect someone you listen to them and when people tell you what they need to improve their lives you believe them and ask questions to make sure you understand what they’re saying. From my observations it seemed to me neither the Trump admin. or the republican party cared for even one nanosecond about the people being governed by them.
As I wrote the paragraph above, experiences I had in my nursing career kept popping into my thoughts. My first job as a newly minted R.N. was working in a rural community hospital in southeast Texas. I was assigned to work in the hospital’s emergency room, which consisted of two rooms, a stretcher in each room and a lot of equipment. There was one nurse, (me) and one physician.
You might think nothing much happens in a rural community, but you’d be wrong. We had gunshot wounds, farming accidents, victims of drunken brawls, horrific car accidents (since we were located less than a mile from the interstate highway) industrial accidents from oil refineries located just outside Houston, heart attacks, drug overdoses, you name it and we had it. But here’s the deal--every patient who walked in or was carried in to the ER deserved to be treated with respect, no matter what the circumstances were.
An adult daughter brought her father to the ER because he said he was going to kill his wife-her mother. So I asked him if that was true and he said it was true-he wanted to kill his wife and he would indeed kill her if he stayed in the house with her. It was the middle of the night so it was hard to find a suitable place for him, but the local police offered him a cot in a jail cell and he took it. He wasn’t arrested, it was just a sleep-over to keep him from harming his wife until morning.
Another incident was when the adult children of woman ran through the door yelling their “Mama had a spell.” She was still in the car so I ran outside and got in the backseat with her. Although she was sitting up, she wasn’t breathing. As we were trying to get her heart beating again a switchblade fell out of her bra. A young man came to the ER alone because he had a fight with his girlfriend which motivated him to take an entire bottle of 300 aspirin. We inserted a large nasogastric tube through his nose to drain his stomach contents and when we were finished he said he felt much better and asked if we could do it again.
My point is, every single person who came to that ER deserved respect. It didn’t matter why they were there or how bizarre their story was, they came there to get help, not to be judged. Similarly, good governance requires genuine caring for the people being governed. If the people in government don’t care, they won’t be effective at governing. I doubt that anyone in a position of power during the Trump admin. cared one whit about the roughly 330 million people in this country. There are plenty of people who don’t care about total strangers, but there are also people who do care. I’m not judging them to conclude whether not caring about strangers is good or bad, I’m saying they exist. American voters need to understand that. It is possible to be both effective and kind, but until voters figure that out there will be people like Trump every so often who pretend to govern and pretend to care, but are really there strictly for selfish reasons.
Steven, as always you manage to hit the right notes. Good governance matters because the returns to the people Sen. Warnock serves (or any like minded Senator or elected official that is in it for public service) are many orders of magnitude greater than the costs. Without good governance, we have a poor educational system, poor roads and transportation networks, poorer health outcomes, likely an even worse COVID pandemic, expansion of health insurance, cleaner air water and soil, advanced R&D among many other things. All of these things allow each of us to enjoy the freedoms we have and the fruits of all the things good governance brings.
The GOP does not want government to succeed in anything as it would only serve to show the benefits of good governance. If that happens, they get what is happening in Russia even without its illegal water in Ukraine. Poor health outcomes, short/brutish lives by comparison to the West, no amenities, and a corrupt oligarchy that is only self serving.
Having worked for both Federal government (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and state government teaching the Universities of Minnesota and Florida in the past, it is not about getting rich, but it was about the importance of ensuring efficiently provided and reliable power or teaching the next generation that we will all depend upon in our retirement.
I like Warnock and wrote postcards to voters for his reelection. I liked much of what he said, but found all his references to prayer and the bible to be a little disturbing.
There is a separation of church and state in this country. I am an atheist. He said, regarding atheists (or others, not sure exactly what time he is), that there was plenty of room under his tent. I’m sure he made that as a generous offer but I don’t want to get under his tent. There’s even more room outside the tent.
“Government is the vehicle for letting us do together what none of us can do alone.” This says it all. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for this beautiful letter to America. I will save this and read it again and again for future reference. We need to see and hear the very touching message from Rev. Warnock and realize the danger of this very very close election! Thank you Steven, for reminding us "Good Governance Matters" indeed!
“Optimism is the belief that things are going to get better. Hope is the belief that we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it does need courage to hope.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Thank you @StevenBeschoss for recognizing and reminding us of the highest ideals for which we can, and should, strive. The Warnock win is tinged a bit this morning with the NYT Breaking News I just received that Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democrat party and becoming an Independent, with no indication as to which partAnother person in our group has just quoted Rabbi Joinathany she will caucus. We should have seen this coming; but I think the timing was deliberately made this week, to take down the 51-49 majority the Democrat party has in the Senate. She is clearly making a statement that she is not going to allow the Democrats the clear majority in the Senate which would give them control over who chairs committees and other advantages that were discussed earlier this week. I want to share your optimism in this country and its future. However, I must applaud another person in this group (Al Bellenchia) for quoting Rabbi Jonathan Sack; and I paraphrase: Optimism is passive. Hope is active. We must have that hope and we must act. A lot of damage was done to our country during the previous administration; and a lot of cult followers still spread the disinformation and conspiracy theories of that administration. You noted them in your writing. I fear that just as Kari Lake is trying to burn down AZ on her way out, the former president may attempt (ok let's face it, he has already tried) to burn down our democracy on his way out. Maybe 45 will face justice in future DOJ proceedings; but the cult that he created and leaves behind is alive and well, and not going anyplace soon. And not facing any judicial action. How much power will they have without their leader. Who will become the leaders of their party. Will it be the MTG wing of the GOP. Does that wing still have enough life in them to do damage to our country ? I'm 72; and I wonder if I will see return to normalcy in my lifetime. I'm trying very much to cling to the Hope that Rabbi Sacks upheld. I'm very much trying to be active and relevant as I was during my college years when I demonstrated and fought for civil rights, fought against racial injustice, and tried to end the Viet Nam War. However, although back then I thought of all of those goals as an uphill battle, in retrospect, those challenges pale in comparison to what we are facing now. The entire concept of the experiment of a Democratic Republic that our Founding Fathers created is on the line. We must summon up all of the Hope and energy we have within us. We can't leave it to others and then later wonder what happened. We all have a responsibility in creating the future we want for our country . And the time is now. As Hillel said: If not now, When?
Optimism keeps the fires burning. We must have fire!
Senator Raphael Warnock is my favorite Senator. (I live in Evanston Il). He is so hard-working every single day, bringing positive change to so many on so many issues. He is so articulate, humane, full of empathy, dignified with so much grace. However, after months of volunteering on GOTV my brain is tired. But now with Sinema’s decision to become an independent I had my first fund raising text at 11 am Friday morning from Ruben Gallego, a person with impeccable credentials (Iraq war veteran included, worked his way through Harvard) who is currently representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District (Phoenix). I wrote over 1500 postcards to voters.org for candidates in multiple states 4.5 months, did hours of texting from my Mac for various candidates from “When We All Vote”, an organization started by Michelle Obama, and various candidates, and for the first time in my life contributed more than I should have to various candidates. I’m not even a “political animal” like my son & an aunt who was one of the founders of Emily’s List. I’m taking the rest of the month off from politics but after the first of the year I will be working on registering young voters as they turn 18 in whatever way is recommended. They are our future. Check out @VictorShi2020 and @VotersofTomorrow on Twitter and rest up. The fight to save our Democracy really never ends.
Amen to Elizabeth Warren and Raphael Warnock. No oxygen to feed Kari Lake or Steve Bannon or Alex Jones or any other racist, antisemitic Nazi
That crazy train is fueled by the evil twins: racism & misogyny!!
Senator Warnock seems to be a rare find for American gov't. His faith and love of people stand him higher above so many who are in it for self aggrandizement, or in the case of Sinema, money. My brother was a career Air Force chaplain whose aim was to bring about love and friendship among the people he served. So different from the "new" class of evangelicals.
Both parties have had their share of the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I have always felt the Democrats sided with the needs of people, not corporations although they are often now called elitists. If elitist stands for being educated, knowledgeable of government's workings, using such positions for the good of the people, then so be it. Look at all President Biden has accomplished in a short time for all. As for Republicans, their only objectives have been to build a wall and revenge against Democrats and democracy, re: trump's desire to rid us of the Constitution. Nothing else.
I do wish a different word than "fight" could be used for accomplishing things. More civil : advocate,promote, stand for,defend. And I am not so sure I agree with Sen. Warren's sentence about government doing together what none can do alone. trump was government for four years, and look what he did alone.
And now Sinema acting out her princess fantasies- money talks- evidently
Kari Lake's whining lament rings hollow, like the fading echo in a vast canyon. She is trying to stay relevant through her nonsensical attachment to Trump. His Show is over. Raphael Warnock and Elizabeth Warren give me hope. Their words are eloquent and wise. After all, the purpose of any good enterprise in business or government, is to effect change for the better., something we should all aspire to.
Every day I read about extreme bills put forth by right wingers &  wonder how they never read the part about “separation of church and state”? Such hubris & disrespect for the over 322 religions practiced in USA!
I agree with you Steven, and with Senator Warren. Good governance means everyone is treated with respect, right off the bat. When you respect someone you listen to them and when people tell you what they need to improve their lives you believe them and ask questions to make sure you understand what they’re saying. From my observations it seemed to me neither the Trump admin. or the republican party cared for even one nanosecond about the people being governed by them.
As I wrote the paragraph above, experiences I had in my nursing career kept popping into my thoughts. My first job as a newly minted R.N. was working in a rural community hospital in southeast Texas. I was assigned to work in the hospital’s emergency room, which consisted of two rooms, a stretcher in each room and a lot of equipment. There was one nurse, (me) and one physician.
You might think nothing much happens in a rural community, but you’d be wrong. We had gunshot wounds, farming accidents, victims of drunken brawls, horrific car accidents (since we were located less than a mile from the interstate highway) industrial accidents from oil refineries located just outside Houston, heart attacks, drug overdoses, you name it and we had it. But here’s the deal--every patient who walked in or was carried in to the ER deserved to be treated with respect, no matter what the circumstances were.
An adult daughter brought her father to the ER because he said he was going to kill his wife-her mother. So I asked him if that was true and he said it was true-he wanted to kill his wife and he would indeed kill her if he stayed in the house with her. It was the middle of the night so it was hard to find a suitable place for him, but the local police offered him a cot in a jail cell and he took it. He wasn’t arrested, it was just a sleep-over to keep him from harming his wife until morning.
Another incident was when the adult children of woman ran through the door yelling their “Mama had a spell.” She was still in the car so I ran outside and got in the backseat with her. Although she was sitting up, she wasn’t breathing. As we were trying to get her heart beating again a switchblade fell out of her bra. A young man came to the ER alone because he had a fight with his girlfriend which motivated him to take an entire bottle of 300 aspirin. We inserted a large nasogastric tube through his nose to drain his stomach contents and when we were finished he said he felt much better and asked if we could do it again.
My point is, every single person who came to that ER deserved respect. It didn’t matter why they were there or how bizarre their story was, they came there to get help, not to be judged. Similarly, good governance requires genuine caring for the people being governed. If the people in government don’t care, they won’t be effective at governing. I doubt that anyone in a position of power during the Trump admin. cared one whit about the roughly 330 million people in this country. There are plenty of people who don’t care about total strangers, but there are also people who do care. I’m not judging them to conclude whether not caring about strangers is good or bad, I’m saying they exist. American voters need to understand that. It is possible to be both effective and kind, but until voters figure that out there will be people like Trump every so often who pretend to govern and pretend to care, but are really there strictly for selfish reasons.
Steven, as always you manage to hit the right notes. Good governance matters because the returns to the people Sen. Warnock serves (or any like minded Senator or elected official that is in it for public service) are many orders of magnitude greater than the costs. Without good governance, we have a poor educational system, poor roads and transportation networks, poorer health outcomes, likely an even worse COVID pandemic, expansion of health insurance, cleaner air water and soil, advanced R&D among many other things. All of these things allow each of us to enjoy the freedoms we have and the fruits of all the things good governance brings.
The GOP does not want government to succeed in anything as it would only serve to show the benefits of good governance. If that happens, they get what is happening in Russia even without its illegal water in Ukraine. Poor health outcomes, short/brutish lives by comparison to the West, no amenities, and a corrupt oligarchy that is only self serving.
Having worked for both Federal government (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) and state government teaching the Universities of Minnesota and Florida in the past, it is not about getting rich, but it was about the importance of ensuring efficiently provided and reliable power or teaching the next generation that we will all depend upon in our retirement.
I like Warnock and wrote postcards to voters for his reelection. I liked much of what he said, but found all his references to prayer and the bible to be a little disturbing.
There is a separation of church and state in this country. I am an atheist. He said, regarding atheists (or others, not sure exactly what time he is), that there was plenty of room under his tent. I’m sure he made that as a generous offer but I don’t want to get under his tent. There’s even more room outside the tent.
Look what Kirsten Sinema went and did, tho 🥺