“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.” Thus spoke Abraham Lincoln at his Second Inaugural Address one month after the Civil War ended, five days before he was assassinated.

In dismay and disgust I watched the January 6 storming of the Capitol, and I waited to hear a stateswoman or statesmen echo those words. Surely a wakeup call was placed to politicians on both sides of the aisle, but sadly, I only heard more vitriol. Officials in Washington seem much more concerned with their self-interest, their constituencies, and their base (left or right) than the common good.

At the close of the impeachment trial, I again longed to hear these words. Regretfully, I am kept waiting. After years of escalating rhetoric, politicians posture and spout their (self) righteousness and vilify the opposition. While major problems beg for solutions, the best we get from the capital is junior high drama.

Can’t we all just get along? Can we meet in the middle? While we have political opinions, the vast majority of us just want life to work. Cynically we observe that government can oppress and make bad situations worse, but in our hopeful moments, we think it really could make things work better and bring liberty and justice for all.

Whoever that statesperson is, here is a good starting point. “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”