Song for the day

I don't know when or where I obtained this album, but I just found Explosion in the Sky's album All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. Here's a live version of the first track, "The Birth and Death of the Day."

(Video link)

Calling out our better selves

All I can say is... watch President Obama's speech on the shooting in Tucson... and perhaps heed his call and reflect a bit on the question of how we can best live our lives.

As he says in the speech, "We are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this Earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -– but rather, how well we have loved -- and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better."

(Video link)

Transcript here.

And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let’s remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud.

Commentary for the day

From Stephen Budiansky:

For as long as I can remember, I have heard conservatives blaming everything that is wrong in the universe, from violent crime to declining test scores to teen pregnancy to rude children to declining patriotism to probably athlete's foot . . . upon Dr. Spock, Hollywood liberals, the abolition of prayer in school, Bill Clinton, the "liberal 1960s," the teaching of evolution — in other words, upon symbols, rhetoric, cultural norms, and the values expressed by political and media leaders. Yet from the moment when someone gets a gun in their hands, apparently, society ceases to have any influence whatsoever on the outcome and individual responsibility takes hold 100%. Something is driving the tripling of death threats against congressmen (and the concomitant rise in threats against Federal judges and other villains of the right, from Forest Service rangers to climate scientists) and it isn't the sunspot cycle

And from Tom Tomorrow (click for a larger image):

Quote for the day

Violence gathers in a small place: a room, a bed, a glove.

-- James Schuyler, "The Infant Jesus of Prague"