What's On Our Minds for February 9, 2023

Here are the things we talked about today:

• Biden’s performance in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. All of us were pleased and impressed, but we also discussed our concerns about his age and his performance in an interview with Judy Woodruff the next day. In this context we talked about who might be our second choice for a 2024 presidential nominee. These names were mentioned:  Kamala Harris (see Kamala Harris Has Had a Most Excellent Year), Cory Booker, Gavin Newsom, Hakim Jeffries, and Pete Buttigieg.
  
  

• Two David Brooks articles, one in today’s New York Times on the death of his clinically depressed friend (How Do You Serve a Friend in Despair?) and another that was published on December 22, 2022:  Biden’s America Finds its Voice.
  
  

• Noah Smith’s January 27th article about vertical communities, and an article in The Bulwark reflecting on it:  Meatspace Matters. Some of us talked about the continuing rewards of finding traditional community in our churches. Others talked about the hope of building community and practicing civil discourse in meetings like our Thursday morning discussion group. In that context we discussed (after reading aloud) this Civility Pledge.
  
  

• Our surprise in learning that April Bailey had written an appreciative article about Misty Wharton in the Tillamook County Pioneer in May of 2017:  Nestucca Valley School District’s New Superintendent Carries on a Commitment to Community.
  

• The decisions some of us are making to enter (or re-enter) local politics in upcoming elections.