[TheRealThing]

Given the entire context of the cultural moment, both former President Bush and President Obama were doing more than speaking to five grief-stricken families. Both men, it seems to me, were speaking to a nation. Slavery, Jim Crow...these are the past, yes, but they also form the mosaic, the context of our nation's racial history and present.

In certain neighborhoods in Chicago, access to a gun, even for a kid, may be more relevant to daily existence than access to a book. That is a reality.

Oh I agree, they spoke to the nation alright.