We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
Greatness comes in simple trappings.
The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are to surmount what divides us, and cement what unites us. To lower our voices would be a simple thing. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. For its part, government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart to the injured voices, the anxious voices, the voices that have despaired of being heard.