1/ Some people only want to talk about what America has done right, and have no interest in addressing the dark shadows of slavery, genocide of Native Americans, and instances of institutionalized suppression of women and blacks that has existed throughout our history.

2/ Others however only want to talk about what America has done wrong, and show no interest in giving credence to the enlightened Constitutional principles on which we stand or to our historical ancestors who have done so much to restore those principles when they were violated.

3/ The truth is that we are both. Of 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 41 were slaveowners - which means that from the beginning, we were both adherents to the highest aspirational principles and perpetrators of the most violent forms of transgression against them.

4/ Every generation, including ours, has contained both elements, and every generation has made its choice. Slave owners v. Abolitionists, male surpramists v. Suffragettes, segregationists v. civil rights movement. It's simply our turn. The aristocratic archetype has returned.

5/ It's important to remember we're not up against anything worse than other generations had to deal with. The point is that they did it. They pushed back on oppression and injustice and so can we. Let's not be the first generation of Americans to wimp out on doing that job.