The Sun Rises Today Over a Washington Less Riven by Cynicism

By Dan Rather, Dan Rather's Facebook Page

28 July 17

erhaps... Perhaps the sun rises today over a Washington less riven by cynicism... Perhaps the fortified walls of intransigent partisanship may start to crumble...

Perhaps the cold calculus of political gamesmanship will begin to give way to the moral accountability of empathetic policy...

Perhaps the clarity of three Republican senators - two strong, independent women and a gravely ill American hero - can lead us on a path to increased normalcy....

Perhaps we can learn to appreciate more all the historic bonds that tie us together as a nation and be less consumed by the damaging forces that tear us apart...

Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps...

I do not diminish the headwinds we face. I do not excuse the vulgarities and injustices that sadly find root in America. And I do not underestimate the capacity of some of our elected officials to rally passions with appeals to our basest instincts.

But what happened early this morning in the Senate chamber will go down as one of the most dramatic showdowns in the history of that august body. While we will have to wait and see where it goes from here. For today I chose hope, a clear-eyed hope, but a hope nonetheless.

In a quirk of timing, these last few days I have been re-reading and putting the finishing edits on my book entitled What Unites Us (due out this November and written with my long-time collaborator Elliot Kirschner). The message of the book is one in which I believe strongly: We are a nation with a common destiny, if we chose to embrace it. From the right to vote to the environment, from service to the free press, from empathy to audacity, we are a people and a nation with a deep foundation built on a strong but imperfect sense of unity. On my countless journeys throughout every corner of this great land I have seen the goodness of my fellow citizens expressed in ways big and small, public and anonymous, and from every part of our diverse population.

I am an optimist, and always have been. That optimism has been tested in my life on several occasions, but rarely more so than recently. However I am now more encouraged than I have been in a long time that we may, just may, be able to come together. We need each other. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom, other than, perhaps, the wisdom of knowing we cannot accomplish what needs to be done alone. And that is how it should be.