Day 73.

I have to tell you something about my favorite song from Hamilton. It’s “One Last Time,” but of course you knew that. It’s the song where Washington says goodbye.

He repeats a motif from the first act: “History has its eyes on you.”

In the first act, he sings it to Hamilton.

In the second act, in “One Last Time,” he sings it to the audience. And it soars.

Remember this as we go forward. We have the chance to leave our mark. We have the chance to keep this country moving in the right direction. Remember that if we all do this together, we will have an impact.

Teach them how.

Day 69. We watched the I Have A Dream speech this morning.

Dr. King compares the promise of the Declaration of Independence to a bounced check written to Black Americans, and not honored. He says the nation is in for “a rude awakening” if those promises continue to linger unfulfilled.

I don’t presume to speak for Dr. King, or speculate on how he would react to our current world. But if he were alive right now, it seems to me that he’d leading Black Lives Matter protests, not objecting to them.

Dr. King focused on showing love toward every human person, through direct and concrete actions, and on doing it now, not later or when it’s more convenient. This I am bringing to the forefront today.

The following passage from his speech “Beyond Vietnam” exemplifies this best to me.

When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I’m not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. . . . If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.” Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says: “Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.” Unquote.

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, “Too late.” There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: “The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on.”

Day 67. So tired.

Met with friends to work on issues we’re going to be joined together on in the coming year. We’re picking out local races to support and issues to work towards.

More tomorrow.

Day 66.

I’ve posted this article elsewhere on social media. But it bears repeating.

This country has what, about 300 million people? Estimates vary, but depending on how you define it, about 50 million to 175 million of us have a pre-existing condition.

If you have a pre-existing condition and the Affordable Care Act is repealed, you could lose your healthcare, if an insurer decides that you are too expensive to cover because of a pre-existing condition.

Sometimes you just lose coverage on that condition.

Sometimes you lose everything.

And we know this because that was the law before the Afforable Care Act was passed.

Health insurance as we know it will no longer be a meaningful concept if we lose this.

We must not lose this.

Day 65.

I had a very rough day today. Rough days sometimes call for good cries.

Here is a list of some of my good cries.

• Obama’s farewell speech (especially the part where he speaks to his family)
• Obama surprising Biden with the Medal of Freedom (the whole thing)

I’m saving Michelle Obama’s farewell speech for a rainy day.

I’m also looking critically at his legacy, for good and for ill. I believe his strongest achievement is the Affordable Care Act. I’ve signed up to show my support this weekend.

There are some things I disagree with him on. Here is a well-written discussion criticizing of the Obama administration’s impact income inequality.

Tomorrow it’s back to the trenches.