Dear Charlie,
Two years ago, we watched the final push toward the 2024 general election together, and you asked me why I had tears in my eyes at a phrase that VP Harris used: “can long endure.”
In the two years since then, we have endured much at the hands of the current administration. You have had to walk by armed National Guardsmen on the streets of our quiet part of the Capital. You’ve seen us go to war. You’ve heard us talk about how gas prices are too high. Friends of yours have had their friends’ parents taken from their houses in our community. You’ve seen your friends’ parents put out of the work of their lives trying to make this world a better place.
You can see the suffering that has been caused as a direct result of the national mistake of November 2024.
But the thing about a Democratic Republic is that the people can change the course when they’ve made a mistake. Today’s our chance.
One thing about mistakes is that you can make them for the right reason, or you can make them for the wrong reason, but they’re still yours. You still have to own that process of making a mistake, learning from it, growing as a person, confronting what in your experience and your thoughts helped you make that mistake and changing course.
Owning those mistakes might make some feel shame. They can know they did the wrong thing for the wrong reason. If you’re feeling shame in the wake of the mistake, that’s part of the process of growing and changing and evolving as people. Feel that in the moment. Hold it. And then use that feeling to change your direction.
I think a lot of people are feeling that shame these days as we look at higher prices for just about everything. a new war, allies being turned into neutrals, and more. We’ve pushed away our friends, we’ve hurt ourselves, we’ve hurt our neighbors, and we’ve made things worse.
But the first step of being in a hole is to stop digging. That’s what’s been going on all over the country for the last few months. We’re not gonna keep digging the hole that we’re in anymore. And when we stop digging. we gotta look around and find our way out again. That’s going to take time. And it’s going to take work. We’re part of it, finding ways to make our community shine again. You see it with Scouts every day: “Do a Good Turn Daily” is what we say. That doesn’t mean forgetting how we got here.
It doesn’t mean that we have to forgive those who got us here right away. They have to want to do the work, too. They have to want to change their hearts and find a new path forward, also.
There’s a long way to go between today and having repaired the breeches of America. It’s going to be a long process, full of work, and full of other mistakes, because we’re all still people just doing our best. That’s what “can long endure,” comes down to. Good people. Good work. Good hearts. Good choices.
We have a good framework here. There’s good bones. After two years of attempts to tear this house down and remake it in ways that make it better for just the very few at the top, it’s time to stop that remodel, and make it better for everyone here, everyone who wants to come here and be part of this future, and make that sustainable. We can long endure if we choose to. It’s time to start to fix that mistake.
I love you, let’s get to work together,
Dad
