I came upon this quote from Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural address in Jill Lepore’s work These Truths; it’s a very painful reminder of how far we have descended. “Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values on which our success depends – honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded, then, is a return to these truths.