With all eyes riveted on the White House Rose Garden yesterday, at what political gadfly and Snark Queen Anna Marie Cox called, "the audacity of hops," four men gathered over beers to discuss the day's events.

Reporters were kept behind a cordon 45 feet away.

Be we, here at Headline Press, have obtained a transcript of the conversation, scribbled on cocktail napkins by an alert lip-reader standing three rows deep in the gaggle of journalists and gawkers.

What follows is an extraordinary record of a historic conversation. We are certain of its accuracy and authenticity:

The President: Welcome, Skip, how's it hangin' ol buddy?

Prof. Gates: Just fine, Mr. President. Thanks. It's nice to see you. You've come a long way since you snuck into my classes, hoping to hit on the very few really fine black women at Harvard.

The President: Aw come on, Skip, that was just a little college fun. Yea, that Jamaican girl was fine, fine. Some of the white girls were fine, too. Er, uh, you don't necessarily need to mention that to Michelle.

Prof. Gates: Just like your (redacted) answers to my questions in class, Barry, I've forgotten all about them.

The President: You da man, Skip. Ah, here comes Sgt. Crowley. Skip, let's try not to make po-po boy, here, think we're teamin' up on 'im. You know how white folks get when they think we're teamin' up on 'em.

Prof. Gates: Oh, 'course not. We be cool.

The President: Ah, yes, welcome Sgt. Crowley. Glad you could make it. I think you know Professor Gates, here. Skip, hold out your hands like you're gonna get cuffed.

Sgt. Crowley: Oh, yes. I remember you now.

The President: Gentlemen, have a seat. The beers will be here shortly. Sgt. Crowley, you seem uncomfortable.

Sgt. Crowley (looking around): Well, to be honest…

The President (interrupting): Please, Sarge, call me Barry. We're havin' beers here and little friendly chat.

Sgt. Crowley (still looking around, nervously): Well, it's just I've never been in a Negro bar before, at least not to drink.

The President (chortles): Uh, Sarge, this is The White House. The home of the President of the United States.

Sgt. Crowley: Yea? You work here? It's even bigger than Professor Gates' house. Imagine that. Wait'll I tell the boys back at the station about this.

Prof. Gates (looking toward the White House): Um, excuse me, Barry, are we expecting the Vice-President?

The President (without turning around): Oh, crap, is Joe walking up right now? Can't get away from that guy.

The Vice-President: Hey guys, what's goin' on? Beers, huh? Mind if I join you?

The President: Sure…sure, Joe…have a seat (rolling his eyes). Skip and I were about to kick Sgt. Crowley's ass, here, but (looks at Professor Gates) I guess we'll have to put that off for a while.

The Vice-President: So, you boys are from Boston, huh? I like Boston. Sucks that Big Popi got ratted out today for 'roids. Hey, know what I like most about Boston…

Unfortunately at this point, the press corps was hustled away from the Rose Garden and we lost our lip-reader. The remainder of the conversation is left to brew in the imagination of historians.

The biggest problem we have in this country is not health care. It's not the ruinous economy. It's not the Iraq War. It's not Afghanistan. It's not the crazy birthers 'n tea-baggers.

It's not even the fact that we have a Socialist Kenynian as president.

Nope. It's Southerners.

We might as well get this right out in the open. Remove it from the whispered conversations in posh coffee houses, around private supper tables. Discuss it and deal with it.

U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said it best yesterday in an interview at the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, when asked what was the GOP's biggest problem:

"We got too many Jim DeMints (R-South Carolina) and Tom Coburns (R-Oklahoma)," said the Senator, retiring next year so he don't give a damn what he says. "It's the Southerners. They get on TV and go, 'errrr, errr.' People hear them and say, 'these people, they're Southerners. The party's being taken over by Southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?'"

There, he said it. I feel better. It's out in the open now.

He's right, of course: What the hell DO Southerners got to do with Ohio?

Let's face it: Southerners have been a problem since the Founding Fathers sat around a big table in the City of Brotherly Love over two centuries ago to try to cobble together a republic outa a rag-tag collection of colonial self-interests.

It was the Southerners, even then, who gave the rest of 'em fits.

You see, Southerners had this notion which suggested the cheapest way to get rich the quickest while farmin' was to go to another continent, grab a bunch of people, bring 'em back here and make 'em work for nuthin' while treatin' like, well, slaves.

You may remember, too, when asked about it, they revolted and even tried to start their own country. Some of 'em, like Texans, are STILL wantin' to start their own country.

Ever since then, Southerners think they got all the right ideas and ever'body else is wrong. You can always tell a Southerner. But you can't 'im much.

Oh sure, you got you're Koinonia Farms and your Highlander Centers and your Southern Poverty Law Centers. You got your great writers and poets. You got your distinctive music and your marvelous if fattening food and your politeness and gentile ways.

But those are few and far between.

Most Southerners don't want to be told what to do. And they don't want to be told they're wrong 'bout they way they see things. They just want to go about makin' their moonshine, chewing their tobacco, marryin' their first cousin if they ain't got sisters and generally bein' nosey and pesterin'.

Maybe we oughta let have their own country, after all. Except, of course, Florida. It's been overrun by Northerners so we could partition it off, keep it; sorta make it the Bangladesh of the U.S. of A.

Naw, probably won't work. Maybe, instead, we'll give 'em their own political party, like the GOP. That way, they can argue with themselves and leave the rest of us alone.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the press and across America.”

“We're glad you could join us this afternoon for this important press conference on the great retching of our time: the misguided and socialist notion that every American should get adequate, if not excellent, health care.”

“As you know our discussion this afternoon is sponsored and convened by the non-profit tea-bag consumer organization, Standing Under Perfidious & Insolent Demagoguery. We here at STUPID are not funded or encouraged in any way by the medical insurance industry, not the major pharmaceutical companies nor anyone else with a vested interest in keeping our current health system secure for huge corporate profits. Nope, no way. You can put that out of your mind right now.”

“We here at STUPID firmly believe in the American people and we believe, like us, you'll believe anything we tell you if we repeat it often enough, throw out a few really goofy and irrelevant statistics and so overcome reformers with utter blather they'll eventually give up or cave in our benefactors wishes – if, of course, we had any benefactors who want to preserve the current system, which we don't.”

“We simply want to see our great system of health care – the greatest in world by our estimates here at STUPID – preserved for our children and our children's children so they, too, can struggle all their lives and come to understand and appreciate the value of very expensive and wasteful health care.”

“And, furthermore, there is simply no reason to move quickly to change anything about our health care system. Moving too quickly can be dangerous. Our nation has been trying to reform this great private, for-profit health care system since the late 1940s and there is no good reason why such reform can't wait a few more years.”

“We're going to turn the microphone over, now, to Congressman Grover T. Washboard who is in no way beholding to the insurance industry, which supplied him with nearly 40 percent of his re-election campaign contributions. Congressman Washboard:"

“Thank…er, uh,…is this thing on? Thank you very much and I want to thank STUPID for organizing this effort and standing up for the American people."

“What we hate most in this great country is standing in line. And standing in line for health care is exactly what we'll get with health care reform. You'll be standing in line waiting for some bureaucrat in Washington to decide if you need an aspirin or not. You'll be standing in line to see a doctor. You'll be standing in line at major sporting events to pee into the urinals.”

“Don't believe all that stuff about 70 percent of Canadians being happy with their single-payer health care system. They're CANADIANS!! They live in Canada!! Oh sure, they get health care immediately when they're sick but what kind of system is that?”

“I'm tellin' you, we're much better off in this country where – ha! – we wait until we're really, REALLY sick and then go to the hospital emergency room where it costs thousands of dollars more to treat us! This is a system that works. Well, it works it you can afford it and, by golly, that's the American way!”

“Thank you, very much, Congressman. I think we can all see your point. Why in the world would the United States of America want to become like every other industrialized nation and provide universal health care for all our citizens? That would only lead to more productivity, more safety and security, more time to be creative and to flourish.”

“No, no. We here at STUPID want to preserve our current system and keep the foot of our wealthy corporations firmly on the necks of like minded citizens and like you and me. Because only then, only in total servitude to corporate greed can we prosper.”

“Heath care? Who needs it? You're all gonna die anyway!”

Like any other week, this one has been filled with public officials acting stupidly and, so, we thank the President for pointing this out.

But this particular week must rank pretty high on the stupidometer (note for ignoramus friends: that's not a real word) with some examples of acting stupid being of Biblical proportions…or, at least, Bible thumpers acting stupid…again.

Let's review:

Some police and a whole host of wingnuts, the Faux News channel in particular, went crazy yesterday over the President of the United States saying in a Wednesday night press conference the Boston police may have acted stupidly in arresting an elderly man who walks with a cane, charging him with disorderly conduct while in his own home being investigated for breaking into his own home. If said police officers watched PBS they might have learned something and recognized the elderly man who walks with a cane as a preeminent scholar and thought better of arresting him…for breaking into his own home.

Really? And the wingnuts go crazy for POTUS suggesting a history of police acting precipitously toward African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans?

Then, of course, there's this lede from today's N.Y. Times: “A two-year corruption and international money-laundering investigation stretching from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn to Israel and Switzerland culminated in charges against 44 people on Thursday, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said.”

And, most certainly, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina is the stupid gift that just keeps on giving. Political Wire quoted the family-values governor, on the eve of a vacation with his family – not to Argentina or, even, the Appalachian Trail:

"I've been trying to do the best I can on all fronts. This time carved out for Jenny and the boys is awfully important in a family situation to put the genie back in the bottle."

Oh, Governor, really nice choice of stupidly-selected, grammatically-confused words.

Which brings us to another self-righteous, self-appointed guardian of young people's morals in state governments: Tennessee State Senator Paul Stanley (we don't know his last name).

Sen. Stanley, famous in the Volunteer State for trashing Planned Parenthood with exhortations about sex outside marriage and introducing legislation to ban gay and unmarried couples from adopting children, went directly to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation when confronted with naked photos he'd taken of one of his interns, a 22-year-old student at Austin Peay University.

Seems the intern's boyfriend just wasn't exactly down the married-with-two-kids, self-righteous, family-values Senator doin' his girlfriend and wanted to, er, um, expose the senator for the hypocrite he is.

The senator told the TBI and the press he feels like a victim and wants the youngsters charged with extortion.

One has to be really stupid or really have a big set to try this tactic as an elected official. The intern's silence on the matter provides the answer.

It appears the Congress will indeed delay any final action on health care reform until after they come back from August vacation. It seems necessary for another 14,000 people to lose their health insurance to make their point.

But not to worry, to show his concern House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Perpetually Tanned, slowed down action Thursday night on the House floor while he and some of his friends – each paying $250 to $5,000 a piece – held a “beach party” fundraiser the Cantina Marina in Washington.

Finally, as if we didn't know this already, the Ohio State University conducted a study in which they determined conservatives believe Stephen Colbert is real.

The study, as reported by the International Journal of Press & Politics, found “conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.”

And that's the stupid news round-up for the week.

As the immortal philosopher Forrest Gump once reminded us of his mother's adage: “Stupid is as stupid does.”

“Good morning, ladies & gentlemen. We're glad you could all be with us this morning and we're grateful to the good brothers here at the C Street House for allowing us to meet in your rumpus room.”

“Sen. Ensign, if you and Gov. Sanford could please put down the girlie magazines, we'll get down to business.

“As you know, we have a serious problem – nay, a threat – with which we must deal and we're here today to plan our strategy to fight it. ”

“The president seems serious about reforming our nation's health care system and that can only mean one thing: providing health care to all Americans will mean lower profits for our friends in the health and insurance industries and that, ladies and gentlemen, means lower contributions for us and we just can't let that happen.”

“We pleased to have with us today some of our friends in the health and insurance industries. You know many of them because many of them have worked in your congressional offices in the past. ”

“We are pleased to tell you our friends, here, have pledged to spend $1.4 million each and every day to defeat health care reform and I don't need to tell you much of that coin will find its way into your pockets if you play along and help us in this effort. ”

“No matter that simple fact alone begs the question for health care reform but, friends, our constituents will never figure that out. We're happy to have the money. ”

“Now then, we all know the easiest and simplest solution to health care problems in America would be a single-payer system. But if everyone had a doctor and health care was inexpensive and readily available there would be no room for our friends in the insurance industry to make much money and that means there would be no extra contributions for us.”

“I'm happy to report our efforts over the years to portray such a system and costly and ineffective have been hugely successful and Sen. Baucus has seen fit and enriched enough to take that off the table. ”

“So, we're left with this most heinous notion of a public option. ”

“Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of the disastrous consequences of the government providing a public option health plan. It would immediately drive down the prices – and profits – of our friends in the insurance industry. It would force them to compete with, say, Medicare. ”

“Oh sure, they could do it – and might even make themselves more efficient in the long run and, who knows, even allow for better health care. But that's not what we're interested in. We want to see them make plenty of money so they can continue to give us plenty of money to help them make plenty of money. ”

“This is not about health care, ladies & gentlemen, this is about making money! ”

“Now, let's get out there and organize town hall meetings, get people to write letters to the editor, get all over the radio and TV with our buddies Rush & Sean & O'Reilly and the Beckster. Spread those myths, which we prefer to think of as reality! ”

“Tell 'em the president is moving too quickly. Tell 'em it'll cost too much. Tell 'em anything you want.”

“Just tell 'em the American people are happy to be last among the industrialized world in health care. Tell 'em our constituents like being unable to afford medical care. Tell 'em the American people are happy to give up their homes to pay medical bills.”

Le Tour de France has a rest day and, so, well look to real news for excitement and recall fondly how 40 years ago today humankind first set foot on the moon and exclaimed for all the world, “Hey, this isnt green cheese after all!”

No, wait. Thats not right. What Neil Armstrong said, of course, 40 years ago tonight was, “This is one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”

And with those words began a debate that would divide this great nation for all of the four decades to follow (and probably beyond): Did Neil and Buzz (and coin-flip loser Michael Collins) REALLY go to the moon? Or did NASA and the CIA and Kennedyphiles all over merely fake this trip using a sound stage set up in some secret location deep in the Mojave Desert?

Its an enduring question and has become a part of our national debate to the point that we are now split into two overriding socio-religious-political camps: 1) those who believe we landed on the moon July 20, 1969; and 2) those who believe the whole thing was staged, a fake, and the moon really is made of green cheese.

Unfortunately, the only human being who knew the real answer died over the weekend. Walter Cronkite went to that big news desk in the sky without revealing the secret and, so, well never know the truth. And thats the way it is.

Oh sure, Le Tour de France was held in 1969 but no one outside of French bike geeks knew about it. Lance Armstrong had not been invented yet and while Greg LeMonde had been invented the only bike hed ridden was one of those 20-inch Schwinn Sting-Rays…doin wheelies down the block.

No, the debate over the alleged moon-landing is so pervasive as to have gained a foothold in nearly every corner of our society. From that single night in 1969 – four years, mind you, after the Beatles staged their performance on Ed Sullivan – the lines have been drawn and the power of each side has ebbed and flowed like the tides supposedly influenced by the gravitational pull of that giant ball of green cheese. (Yea, right, like anything would have such power over MY planet!)

You may not realize it. It can be a subtle struggle, sometimes, but its there and undercuts nearly every decision made in Washington and, employing also (therefore, too) the trickle-down theory, every decision made on the state and local levels as well.

Sure, the green-cheesers held sway in the last decade or two but many others see that phase waning with the election of an African-American Socialist Muslim without a birth certificate to the White House and hope lies audaciously that real moon-landers will now have the courage to speak out, take a stand, look back on Spaceship Earth with fondness and say, “Whoa, you dont look so good, a little warm perhaps.”

And while the moon-landers may have the upper hand at the moment, be assured the green-cheesers will never give up. Even now, they are holding meetings at pizza parlors across the nation, noticing immediately how much a 28-inch pepperoni and double-cheese resembles the moon surface.

Every once in a while theyll pop up and say things like, “unless you have a total meltdown youre sure to be confirmed,” or, “we have a chance to fight this at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box,” or, “health care for everyone will destroy our economy.”

And, so, today we salute Neil and Buzz and that other guy who just like John, Paul, George & Ringo before them changed our lives and our world on a Sunday night never to be forgotten.

And, just to make sure, like that immortal philosopher George Bailey once said, “You want me to lasso the moon for ya, Mary?”

(Wait…that WAS on a soundstage.)

“We here at the Bank of Butch & Sundance and are pleased to announce record profits of $3.44 billion in the second quarter and with that huge excess, we’re also announcing pay raises of $11.4 billion for our top executives – good job, boys, nice work if you can get it.”

“We’d also like to publicly thank the good people of the good ol’ US of A for making that federal train so easy to rob of $10 billion and, thus, assuring our return to profitability after the tough year of 2008. And, in particular, we are indebted to our dear friend, Woodcock, for standing back and letting us blow open that safe.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Blankfein, don’t you mean ‘the bank of GoldmanSachs,’ and by referring to ‘Woodcock,’ don’t you mean former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was Goldman CEO before becoming treasury secretary?”

“Oh, did I say, ‘Butch & Sundance?’ Must have been a slip of the tongue. Yes, of course, GoldmanSachs. And, yes, I mean my ol’ pal Hank. We call ‘im Woodcock around here because he proved so good with it.”

“I’d further like to thank again the good people of the US of A and Woodcock for allowing us to also rob that other federal train of $80 billion, making it possible for us to suck the last remaining life outa that AIG bank or insurance company or whatever it was. Without those two train jobs I wouldn’t be standing here today, contemplating which new mansion in the Hamptons I’ll be buying…maybe a whole island in the South Pacific.”

“Excuse me, again, Mr. Blankfein, but don’t you feel just a little remorseful having taken all that money from the good people of the US of A, money that might have gone into schools and roads, health care and the general welfare while diverting it to your own purposes?”

“Oh, hell no, boy! What world you livin’ in? I live with the Hole-in-the-Wall Street Gang, where only the fattest survive!”

“You may not remember this, boy, bein’ only a few months old like you are but way back in 2008 we were in dire straits around here, having been foisted on our petard of crazy and risky investments once we got our buddies in the federal government to leave us alone. Hell, we could barely cover the 8- and 9-figure salaries of me and my gang. I mean, we gotta eat, right?”

And ol’ Sundance, there, he’s has that lovely Katherine Ross to keep up. She might even lose her job as school marm, what with all the budget cutbacks.

“But none of that bothers us, here at the Hole-in-the-Wall Street Gang. No, sireebob. We’ll just keep robbin’ and pillagin’ and plunderin’ those federal trains and the good people of the US of A until somebody gets wise and tries to stop us.”

“Yea, right. Like that’ll happen; like the new sheriff’ll send a posse out after us. Not to worry, though, we got our people on the inside.”

“And, besides, there’s always Bolivia.”

Sen. Leahy: “Lets call this hearing to order. I believe it's the distinguished senator from Alabama's turn to ask questions of our nominee.”

Sen. Sessions: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Judge Sotomayor, we're here today to try to find out if a Mexican senorita of your nature is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land (covers microphone with hand and turns away) or just to clean the justice's chambers.”

Judge Sotomayor: “Thank you, Senator and I heard that last remark. Actually, Senator, to set the record straight, my family is not Mexican. My family is from Puerto Rico. I was raised in New York.”

Sen. Sessions: “Puerto Rico, Mexico…what's the difference? You're family didn't come from America and you ain't white.”

Judge Sotomayor: “With all due respect, Senator, there is a great difference between Puerto Rico and Mexico: the cultures, the traditions, the geography and history. And, to be honest, sir, Puerto Rico is actually part of the United States.”

Sen. Sessions: “Okay, okay…but the point is you ain't white like me and I'm not sure your taco-eatin' ways belong on the YOU-ESS SOO-PREEM COURT.

Judge Sotomayor: “Well, again, with all due respect, Senator, I'm only slightly off-white and, yes, my hair is curly and black and while I'm not an artist I'm might describe your skin as being more pink than white.”

Sen. Sessions: “Yea, you're right. I need to get down to Gulf Shores for a little sun and fun. But that's beside the point. Tell me, exactly, Judge Sotomayor, why do Hissss-panic names such as yours have so many vowels?

Judge Sotomayor: “Senator, I'm not sure what this has to do with my qualifications to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court but if you must know, the Spanish language – the language of my parents and grandparents – comes directly from the ancient Roman tongue, as does Italian and French and Portuguese. And if I'm counting correctly my last name has only two vowels while yours has three.”

Sen. Sessions. “Oh…yea…so it does. Anyway, if you're on the Supreme Court are you gonna wear some kind of Mexican senorita dress up there instead of a black robe?

Judge Sotomayor: “Senator, once again, with all due respect, wouldn't you like to ask me something about my judicial philosophy or my record on the federal bench for 17 years? That tenure is, by the way, a longer tenure on the federal bench than any current sitting supreme court justice.”

Sen. Sessions: “Sure…sure, I would. How come you said a wise Latina woman might have a better understandin' of racial discrimination cases than old white farts like me? Hell, sister, nobody knows more about racial discrimination than old white farts like me!”

Judge Sotomayor: “Yes, Senator, I believe you have a point there. I seem to recall this very committee denied you a seat on the federal bench back in the 1980s because of your well-regarded reputation for telling crude, racist jokes.”

Sen. Graham: “Excuse me, my esteemed colleague from Alabama, it does not appear this hot Latin dish is gonna have a complete meltdown so it looks like she's gonna be confirmed. Maybe I should call my good buddy Mark Sanford.”

What you've just read is NOT – repeat NOT – an accurate representation of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings yesterday on the confirmation of Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But it might as well have been!

Oh sure, it will be a colorful week in our nation’s capital – but not in a good way.

We’ve had a nice few weeks in which the major news of this country seemed to center on the hypocrisy of fundamentalist family-values politicians exposed after all as the same philanders they so quickly condemn. But that was all fun and games.

Attention will be focused in Washington this week on the distinct possibility a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court will be occupied by, OMG, a woman and not only that but, OMG, a woman of Puerto Rican heritage!

What we won’t see in Washington – at least not much – much will be thoughtful discussion of SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy and record. What we will see – much, at least, from the fundamentalist underbelly of lawmakers – will be discussion of the fact that Sotomayor IS a woman and, OMG, of Latin heritage.

Let’s set the record straight, though, on one minor point before the verbal fusillade starts: Puerto Rico IS part of the United States of America. It’s not a state. Some think it should be. But it’s not a foreign country, either. Some think it should be. Every single person born on that beautiful island is American by birth. They may not have full, voting representation in the Congress but Puerto Ricans vote and pay taxes just like everyone else in the 50 states and, oh yea, the District of Columbia.

The problem, you see, is that some folks’ vision of America just doesn’t allow for America as a patchwork quilt of diverse heritage, skin color, language or cultural contributions.

Nope. I know it’s the 21st Century and we have a president of African heritage who has nominated a woman to the Supreme Court who speaks Spanish as fluently as she speaks English. (Heck, the President speaks Hawaiian fluently…mahalo, y’all.) But we also have a dwindling mostly rural, mostly Southern, mostly Caucasian population who are afraid because their vision of America is fading in this same 21st Century.

And while that vision was always an illusion it’s becoming increasingly indisputable – finally - that Amurka just ain’t the last best hope ONLY of displaced Europeans. That fact scares the livin’ heck out of some folks who for generations have been mentally implanted with fear of folks different from themselves.

You hear that fear given voice when folks like Sarah Palin talk about “the real America.” You’ll hear that fear given voice this week when some U.S. Senators will focus not on Sotomayor’s judicial history to this point or impressive qualifications to sit on the nation’s highest court but, rather, on her heritage, her intellect, her “empathy.” (When, exactly, did empathy become a bad thing?)

You’ll hear U.S. Senators talk about her membership in organizations promoting equality for Latin Americans. You’ll hear them question her about “impartiality” when faced with Supreme Court decisions about race or gender. You’ll hear them imply she not’s all that smart and has been promoted only because of her background.

It was stirring back in 1963 when a young and intellectually vigorous President Kennedy make a triumphal trip to Ireland to show that relatively small nation America could overcome past prejudices.

It was even more stirring this past weekend when a young and intellectually vigorous President Obama took his daughters to a Ghanaian fort once used as a staging ground for the export of slaves to show an entire continent what America could overcome.

But back in America, the voices of fear will once again try to become louder than the voices of victory. The fear will not, however, work ultimately. It can’t because the voice of hope and promise has always been louder in this great nation than the voices of fear.

Someday, maybe, we’ll collectively start to take seriously that “land of the free and home of the brave” thing.