The final stretch to the finish of this election cycle will be agonizing for everybody except truly ignorant citizens (there are more than a few of those) and certifiable masochists.  We have the debates ahead of us.  I dread the rancor.  I am drawn to those debates the way some people are drawn to train wrecks and automobile accidents. 

Those of us who celebrate and support the presidency of Barack Obama are recommitting to responsible citizenship under his leadership.  I am trying hard to assume the people who support the Republican challengers in this election are also good folks who are recommitting to responsible citizenship.  I like very much our President’s emphasis on the importance of cooperation of all Americans in our country’s move forward in an increasingly complicated world. I like his humility.  I like where he has come from to be the President of the United States of America.  It is significant that the President is a person who is both white and black, a man from our country’s economic middle class, a thoroughly educated bright citizen, truly a man for all seasons.  We need him for a second term.

I have no idea what happened to the woman in my picture that brought her to this place without a home.  I don't know who's to blame for her being here with her belongings under a tree instead of in a home with walls and a roof, with doors and windows, with security.  Knowing whom to blame is not my concern.  I want my city and my country to be a place where people don't beg at intersections, where they don't find themselves homeless with all their worldly belongings clustered around them under a tree. I want my country to be a place where people feel responsible for the well-being of all fellow citizens...of the world.

It can happen.