I shared yesterday’s post with a few people in my life with whom I share many perspectives, and for whom I have enormous respect both intellectually and personally. One provided the response below:

“Dear Eddie,
Cannot have that dark dark piece be the last word, as true as it appears right now. Musings:
I believe that character, kindness and decency matter.  
I certainly feel betrayed by my countryfolk.
My friend, (an African-American man), who knows a thing or two about loving a country that has often betrayed him, tells me this country has always fought for every small step  and that he swears things are better now than when he finished college in 1968.

Etty Hillesum knew a great deal about the evil in the world and she wrote:
“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others.” 

I have come to the conclusion that the western idea of progress is not true.  We believe in the “long arc of justice” that twists and turn but goes forward. The Eastern and Hindu idea is very different: that there is an unending cycle of creation-maintenance-destruction-creation-maintenance-destruction………….. Our lives and the seasons mirror that idea and it’s the one that history demonstrates.

Not sure there’s solace here, maybe just another viewpoint.”