WITH CHARITY FOR ALL

We all have down days during this crisis. Today we awoke to a beautiful cool spring Miami morning feeling a bit blue. Exercise did not change our outlook, so we sought solace in the words of the greatest American President. A man who met his moment and took his country to the other side of the river. Although, like Moses and another great leader- Dr. King, he did not live to see the promised land, he took our bloodied and beaten nation through our worst time. And like all difficult times, we emerged stronger. 

These are the concluding words of the 16th President of the United States Second Inaugural Address. They were delivered on March 4, 1865. The President would be dead in forty-one days. But his words live on and inspire for as long as we have this Republic he saved:

Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

May the grace of the Lord shine upon all of us as we work to bring our nation, our community and our families through this crisis. 

Because we are in a charitable mood, we invite you to click over to DOM's FEDERAL blog, where he takes a tentative step into State Court waters by posting a Shakesperean slap-down order to an "emergency motion" by...you guessed it... Judge Milton Hirsch.