The Long Record

.We are living in a moment that demands something better from us.

The temperature of our public life has risen to a dangerous pitch. Conversations ignite before they begin, hostility travels faster than reason, and too often we forget there is a human being standing on the other side of our opinions. This cannot be the legacy we accept.

Now is the hour to choose understanding over outrage.

The road ahead is not calm. Change is gathering. Truth has a way of surfacing when we least expect it, and the months before us may test our steadiness. But uncertainty is not a signal to fracture — it is a call to rise. Meet it with clear eyes. Meet it with courage. Meet it with decency.

We came closer than many realize to profound national loss, and the weight of that reality should not pass unnoticed. Questions remain. Emotions remain. Yet even here, we are given a choice: descend further into division, or step forward with composure and moral strength.

Let us be citizens who refuse the seduction of contempt.

Extinguish the reflex to wound. Reject the appetite for chaos. Stand, instead, for restraint, for dignity, for the quiet power of self-command.

History does not only remember what nations endure — it remembers how they carried themselves through the storm.

So move forward together. Not identical in thought, but united in the understanding that our shared future is more important than our passing fury.

And may God continue to watch over the United States of America.