The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who had done nothing to harm anybody.

Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding. And then another one. Hamas does have support among some Palestinians, but they also have responsibilities.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. And yet Al Qaeda chose to ruthlessly murder these people, claimed credit for the attack, and even now states their determination to kill on a massive scale. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.