1/ That so many Americans are left to fend for themselves through this crisis, without proper healthcare and without an adequate bailout - in many cases without even food - does not just speak to how America handles a crisis; it speaks to what America has become.

2/ Yet even here, in the depth of revulsion one feels at our official heartlessness toward health care workers, children and so many of our most vulnerable, there lies the seed of a new American beginning. It’s when we see how off-track we are that we’re most inspired to change.

3/ America has historically responded to our worst deviations from conscience with periods of self-correction. We responded to slavery with abolition, oppression of women with suffrage & institutionalized white supremacy with the civil rights movement. So we will respond to this.

And yet, inequality and human suffering in this country continues to rise. I hope you’re right, but history is not on our side.