My heart is broken for America. I mean that. My heart is broken. We have gone through too many terrors, too many tragedies, and all in a matter of days. What is there to do but be broken of heart? This isn't a rhetorical question--I do not know the answers here.
What I do know is that on Wednesday a man walked into a Jeffersontown, Kentucky supermarket--having already been turned away from a predominantly black church--and shot and killed a black man before shooting and killing a black woman in the parking lot.
Yesterday after days of terror, a man was arrested for sending pipe bombs to many current and former Democratic politicians, officials and donors, as well as a news network. He was an avid fan of our President and his targets were also targets of the President's twitter ire.
In addition to the people he attempted to assassinate, he put countless men and women of the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Secret Service at risk. I wish more people would remember that, as they--not the targets--likely would have been the victims.
Today in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a man armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and at least three additional handguns shot and killed 11 people at a synagogue during a bris. He wounded at least six others, including four police officers.
הַמָּקוֹם יְנַחֵם אֶתְכֶם בְּתוֹךְ שְׁאָר אֲבֵלֵי צִיּוֹן וִירוּשָׁלָיִם
The South African author and anti-apartheid activist Alan Paton once said: "The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again."
We have faced too many broken things, and too many that will not be mended.
We have faced too many broken things, and too many that will not be mended.
Too many homes with empty chairs, empty beds and empty cribs. Not just in Pittsburgh and in Jeffersonville, but in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas; in Bakersfield and Orlando; in Melcroft and Annapolis.
Today marks the 294th time this year four or more people have been shot in a single incident. That's just a couple shy of one for every single day of year.
And as American thirsts for a President to give them comfort and care, to put away the partisanship and the bickering, instead he goes to rallies and delivers the same hateful, insulting rhetoric for which he became known. Rhetoric that demeans and attacks.
He says all of this, by the way, while also claiming he wants to unite this nation. But he doesn't want to unite the nation--he wants the nation to unite around him and he doesn't understand this nation. He only understands those who follow him.
And make no mistake--they are a minority. It may not always feel that way, but there are good people left in this nation and we outnumber those who embrace hatred, embrace fear-mongering and embrace xenophobia and racism.
Paton said something else. He said "But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.” So that is what I want you to do tomorrow. I want you to do one act of love for a total stranger.
I don't care how small or how large. Just one act of love. I have around 70,000 followers, imagine for a second what 70,000 acts of love could do. Love given selflessly, without the expectation of repayment or restitution. Because that is the first step to building a better world
The other day President Trump called himself a nationalist, and a lot of people get nationalist and patriotism confused.
Patriotism is pride in your country but American patriotism is a little different. American patriotism is pride in what your country will become.
Patriotism is pride in your country but American patriotism is a little different. American patriotism is pride in what your country will become.
Americans cannot and will not ever be satisfied with the country we have--to be a true patriotic American you must be actively working to make this country better tomorrow than the country it is today. That is American Patriotism.
And the best way to do that, is love. Because love is the one commodity in the known universe that expands and grows as it is shared. Love costs us little and gives us so much greatness in return. Let us all be patriots tomorrow and show others just one act of true love.
I leave you know with a quote from Fred Rogers, whose neighborhood was hit today with an act of hatred and terrorism. I hope my Jewish followers will forgive me for quoting a gentile, but I feel these words must be heard this evening.
“If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”
― Fred Rogers
― Fred Rogers
I have love in my heart for all of you. Good night.
