Essential Powerful Tools

In this type of testing we need to remember a few things.  First, let us remember we have faced times of testing before.  Following 9-11 I saw a great nation rise as one to honor the brave, to grieve with the grieving and to embrace unavoidable new duties, and I have no doubt, none at all, that this spirit of service and sacrifice is alive and well in America.  Second, let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are essential powerful tools of national recovery.  Even at an appropriate social distance, we can find ways to be present in the lives of others, to ease their anxiety and share their burdens.  Third, let’s remember that the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly.  In the days to come it will be especially important to care in practical ways for the elderly, the ill and the unemployed.  Finally, let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat.  In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants, we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.  We rise or fall together and we are determined to rise.  God bless you all.

-- Former President George W. Bush, in a video with a message on coronavirus, released by his Presidential Library, 2 May 2020