1/ Reconciliation and a just lasting peace, whether between nations or a divided country, requires both grace and toughness. Perhaps no leader understood this better than Abraham Lincoln. In 1865, Lincoln ended his 2nd inaugural with famous words (Cont)
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2/ words:
that included, "With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up all the nation's wounds ..."
Lincoln was also tough and ready to hold traitors (Cont)
3/ accountable. But he also knew that unless our wounds were bound, both black and white would be worse off. Blacks, of course, would be victims of white supremacist violence and institutional racism. And many whites would suffer as the wealthy exploited racism as a means (Cont)
4/ of waging class warfare against them. Alas Lincoln was assassinated, and his vision of Reconstruction was screwed up by his awful successor, Andrew Johnson. An inspiring example of grace and toughness is, of course, South Africa's Nelson Mandela, who made peace with his (Cont)
5/ jailers to secure majority black rule. Today, Joe Biden is valiantly working to thread the needle between grace and toughness to heal and save America. It's a thankless job much of the time. Millions of MAGA cultists are beyond redemption, and many like me are often too (Cont)
6/ angry or afraid to make any effort at identifying and engaging those who might be persuadable. Hence, we often lose patience with Biden when he tries to find common ground. But he's right to try. That does NOT mean he should EVER consider pardoning Trump and his (Cont)
7/ minions. To do so would not be grace. It would be weakness. We, however, should understand that this can't all be on Biden's shoulders. Each of us has a role to play in healing and saving our country. That means engaging and persuading family, friends, and (Cont)
8/ neighbors that have gone to the dark side. It's a tall order, I know. It requires courage, grace, and toughness. It's risky. And these efforts will often fail. But many can also succeed. It's the patriotic thing to do. And it's the only way our divided house can endure (Cont)
8/ and continue on its journey to becoming a more perfect union.
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