To be honest, during Obama’s tenure as president, I haven’t watched many of his addresses from start to finish. But I happened to catch this one on FB (thanks, Ola May) and am deeply moved. Obama is super-tired and -pissed, and normally I don’t really care how POTUS is feeling, but this speech really cuts through all the rhetorical tar. I feel like he beautifully voices the weariness and anger that so many of us are feeling each time news breaks of another mass shooting. We can’t be okay with this type of tragedy becoming a motif in the American news cycle, with all of this – including the conversations around it – becoming ‘routine’. I love how he questions what it really means to fight or participate in violence, how he asks the American people to take responsibility, demand more from our democracy (and more pointedly, those purporting to represent us) and take active steps to honor “our common life together.” So rationally, eloquently and humanly stated. Wow. Kudos to Obama and whoever wrote this speech.