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Two Must-Reads
Michael Cohen (The Guardian): Ten days that turned America into a better place
Some day, people are going to write books about what happened over the last 10 days in the United States. It began with a depressing reminder of what is, perhaps, the worst of America. A disturbed young man, armed with an easily obtainable and high-calibre handgun, shot down nine people in cold blood. It was a shocking act, but largely because Americans have become so inured to the daily carnage of gun violence that the only types of incidents that stand out are those that are uniquely horrific.
Of course, what made the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, so particularly notable was the where and why – a white gunman, nine African-American victims, a historic black church in the cradle of the former Confederacy. Dylann Roof’s crime was distinctively evil, but the sentiments underpinning it were depressingly familiar. They reflect the original and ongoing sin of this nation – the more than two centuries of mistreatment, prejudice and discrimination visited by white America upon black America.
But then something amazing happened. Practically overnight, America had a national epiphany.
Gregory Krieg (Mic): The Time Has Come to Recognize President Obama’s Game-Changing Liberal Legacy
It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. In the aftermath of the 2014 midterm elections, when Democrats ceded control of the Senate and saw their deficit steepen in statehouses across the country, President Barack Obama was widely expected to set aside his ambitions and map out a more cautious agenda.
That was eight months ago.
After a thrilling and fraught week in Washington D.C., and South Carolina, Obama’s legacy is coming into plain view — and emerging as one of the sharpest and most significant in the last century of liberal politics.
More Here http://theobamadiary.com/2015/06/28/two-must-reads/
Mr. President, Sir.
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Here they follow the casket.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/rev-clementa-pinckneys-daughters-wifes-moving-letters-funeral/story?id=32050037&pt=BureoF3GVB
I am in tears.
Love ya! 
"Every time something like this happens, somebody says we have to have a conversation about race. We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. And we don’t need more talk....
"It would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.
"Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual — that’s what we so often do to avoid uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society. To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change — that’s how we lose our way again."
"It would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again.
"Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual — that’s what we so often do to avoid uncomfortable truths about the prejudice that still infects our society. To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change — that’s how we lose our way again."
Thank you she. That first photo goes straight to my heart. 
