In a recent column in The New York Times (“Tree of Failure,” January 14, 2011), David Brooks shares his reactions and reflections following President Obama’s speech in Tucson earlier in the week. I agree with Brooks that it was an especially effective speech and now hope that it convinced at least a few people to reconsider their commitment to incivility as a political strategy.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Brooks concludes his article with these observations by Reinhold Niebuhr:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope….Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”