In the weeks after 9\/11, when America was terrified and girding for war, I traveled on assignment to New York City.<\/p>\n
I found that a couple of the major museums there were mounting exhibitions of Persian and Islamic art. I remember the surge of hope that I felt. <\/p>\n
We have the capacity, I thought, deep within our culture, to think in complex and hopeful ways about the difficult and morally ambiguous times ahead. <\/p>\n
In the short term, it didn’t turn out that way. <\/p>\n
America detoured into a voluntary war which most Americans — and most foreign policy experts — now see as a horrendous blunder.<\/p>\n
But seven years later, voters have decisively elected a man named Barack Hussein Obama, our first African-American president.<\/p>\n
It’s a remarkable act of courage and imagination. Perhaps even an act of healing. <\/p>\n
I remember marveling at those amazing sculptures of glass and clay in New York’s museums.<\/p>\n
I remember thinking, How fragile they look — but how tough they must be to have survived all these hard centuries.<\/p>\n
That’s America all over again. A fragile, diverse and beautiful community. And tough enough, I think, for whatever lies ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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