Sunday Morning Reflections: When Seeking Forgiveness Trumps Individualism

At our best, humans press forward toward "the common good:" goals shared between us as community members to best care for everyone in our midst.

It has taken a lot of activism and change to even get us to the imperfect point we are today as a nation.

And it will continue to take activism and change to get us to a better place, as the forces of individualism and greed work to erode the very values on which the nation was founded.

For women to have a vote we had to fight for and in 1920 pass the 19th Amendment. And it wasn't until 1964-65 that we passed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. The 1990's (!) saw the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Let's believe and act in support of not that America or any one leader is great and should be held above the rest, but rather in people striving together for continuous improvement and the desire to work for and live in a nation that serves everybody equitably, leaving no one behind.

If you're not outraged by the level of individual graft, corruption, and self dealing of the current administration, and the way it is harming you, me, and others around the world every day, then I hope you will reflect again. There is no justification for the self-harm being inflicted on this nation and on our partners globally in the name of advancement of the sitting president and his supporters. None.

Our most successful schools hold the continuous improvement of each student as a primary goal. My parents and my faith both encourage me to understand that no one is perfect, we are all flawed, we all make mistakes, we all need to ask for and offer forgiveness.

This is the way we continuously improve. These are the ways we become a truly great nation.

Give what you can even when what you have seems too little. Provide food, shelter, and comfort to those in need. Do what needs to be done to discourage and even outlaw the accumulation of great wealth.

There is no one on the planet who "deserves" what they have, especially when it means so many others have so much less.

We have been given everything when we were given life on this planet and are entitled to nothing more. The "American" belief that we are is perhaps our gravest cultural sin.

Feel free to disagree. Nothing better than being in dialogue! Our conversations, our listening, is the means by which we advance. There is for sure error in my own ways, always to be corrected.

“No nation, no society, and no international order can call itself just and humane if it measures its success solely by power or prosperity while neglecting those who live at the margins.”

- Pope Leo XIV