America

America is great because she is good.  If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

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I love history.  I like the people and the stories and the way that it leads us to today.  Of course there are people who are not likable and stories which are not good.  As people we are the sum of our past experiences.  And more than that.  As a country we are the same.  

Greater than the sum of our parts.

The reality is that we need to acknowledge the bad things.  The difficult parts.  The shameful things.  We wouldn't be the country we are without those mistakes.

But we shouldn't wallow in our mistakes.  We need to celebrate our victories and successes and goodness, too.  We are not simply a sum of our failures or our successes.  We need to focus on not one or the other, but on what they make as parts of a larger whole.

No coasting on success.
No wallowing in failure.

Instead we should wallow in chocolate pudding.  I know, you're pretending it is gross, but you're kind of liking the idea.  I know you are.