Having traveled to the deeply international city of Toronto for a few days, I was able to hear how the people of the world are stunned by the current chaos in America.

Worried over the destruction made possible by petulant words of war. Hoping that the citizens of the country care enough.  Open and curious and honestly alarmed.  Two conversation-defining words: “provocation” and “peace”.

I am surprised by the depths of my own patriotism, by the conviction and hope I find within the words of the Constitution and the Declaration.  The documents are blueprints, establishing the possibility that We the People hold the highest responsibility over our collective fate, empowered by the idea that we are a power superseding the three branches.  Supplying the roots and the fruits.

I wonder over the fate of our dreams: the American Dream, the Dream of Democracy, the Dream of MLK.  All three perhaps are acts of patriotic faith, drawing upon our belief in a perfectable union.