Here Is A Pretty Good Rule Of

We Are Exceptional Not Because Of Who We Are But Because Of What We Do And How We Put The Ideals Of Human Dignity, Individual Freedom, And Liberty Under Law Into Action.

As A Southerner Born After The Epic Events Of The Civil Rights Movement, I've Always Wondered How On Earth People Of Good Will Could Have Conceivably Lived With Jim Crow - With The Daily Degradations, The Lynchings In Plain Sight, And, As The Movement Gathered Force, With The Fire Hoses And The Police Dogs And The Billy Clubs.

The Attacks Of September 11 - And Subsequent Acts Of Terror From London To Madrid To Fort Hood, Texas - Embody The Most Repulsive Of Human Instincts, The Will To Power At The Price Of The Lives Of Others.

Only The Most Unapologetic Biblical Fundamentalists, For Instance, Take Every Biblical Injunction Literally. If We All Took All Scripture At The Same Level Of Authority, Then We Would Be More Open To Slavery, To The Subjugation Of Women, To Wider Use Of Stoning. Jesus Himself Spoke Out Frequently Against Divorce In The Strongest Of Terms.

Justified Or Not, The Supreme Court Has A Kind Of Sacred Status In American Life. For Whatever Reason, Presidents Can Safely Run Against Congress, And Vice Versa, But I Think There Is An Inherent Popular Aversion To Assaults On The Court Itself. Perhaps It Has To Do With An Instinctive Belief That Life Needs Umpires.