I Wish The Country Had Fewer Lawyers

On My Recent Trip To Israel, I Had The Opportunity To Visit Yad Vashem, Israel's National Holocaust Memorial, And Reaffirm Our Collective Responsibility To Confront Anti-semitism, Prejudice, And Intolerance Across The World. On This Yom Hashoah, We Must Accept The Full Responsibility Of Remembrance, As Nations And As Individuals-not Simply To Pledge "never Again," But To Commit Ourselves To The Understanding, Empathy And Compassion That Is The Foundation Of Peace And Human Dignity.

We Are Not At War Against Islam.

Several Americans, Unjustly Detained By Iran, Are Finally Coming Home. In Some Cases, These Americans Faced Years Of Continued Detention, And I've Met With Some Of Their Families. I've Seen Their Anguish, How They Ache For Their Sons And Husbands. I Gave These Families My Word. I Made A Vow That We Would Do Everything In Our Power To Win The Release Of Their Loved Ones, And We Have Been Tireless.

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

I Kept Finding The Same Anguish, The Same Doubt; A Self-contempt That Neither Irony Nor Intellect Seemed Able To Deflect. Even Dubois’s Learning And Baldwin’s Love And Langston’s Humor Eventually Succumbed To Its Corrosive Force, Each Man Finally Forced To Doubt Art’s Redemptive Power, Each Man Finally Forced To Withdraw, One To Africa, One To Europe, One Deeper Into The Bowels Of Harlem, But All Of Them In The Same Weary Flight, All Of Them Exhausted, Bitter Men, The Devil At Their Heels.