Exquisitely stated, EEE. Damn, are you ever in New England so I could experience the man in person? Surely we could arrange a centrally-located meet-up destination for all concerned. Perhaps, an island somewhere that triangulates North America, Europe, and Australia, oh, and isn't South Africa represented here still? Would that require quadrangulating? What a hideous attempt at a word.

But more to the point, EEE, your overriding point about trying to get into another's shoes, or heels actually. I know that I have to do a better job of it as well. We all do.

I see so many people caught up in what I consider really superficial pursuits, endless talking about shopping, diets, restaurants, and most often, about other people, and how those other people are doing something else wrong. And yes, I don't exempt myself from this admonishment, but I'm trying, really am!

So many Americans buy into that American exceptionalism angle, the religiosity of the "shining city on a hill". And don't get me wrong. For a lot of the world, we've been a flawed, sometimes very flawed, beacon of humanity's best values. I think nations, like people, need to self-reflect, need to peer back at where we've been as a nation and a species, and individually. I've been slogging through Steven Pinker's "Enlightenment Now" for too long, but the overriding message I get is that humanity has come so far on so many fronts. We are so lucky (and that is the right word) to have been born here and when we were. There's surely work to be done, that's an understatement, but humanity has come a long way, especially when SCIENCE and REASON are used. Hitchens said we are not fallen angels, we're risen apes!

Let's hope us apes have more room to rise, EEE!

Peter T.