President Obama’s address to Congress last night on health care had its high points and low points.  You can tune into your favorite spin-masters to hear those recaps.  My favorite part of the President’s speech was when he spoke of our “large-heartedness” and our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of others to offer assistance, provide comfort and seek justice.  He started by reminiscing about Senator Edward Kennedy, reminding us that this his commitment to improving our healthcare system was 

“born not of some rigid ideology, but of his own experience. It was the experience of having two children stricken with cancer. He never forgot the sheer terror and helplessness that any parent feels when a child is badly sick. And he was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance, what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent, there is something that could make you better, but I just can’t afford it.”

President Obama continued:

“That large-heartedness — that concern and regard for the plight of others — is not a partisan feeling.  It’s not a Republican or a Democratic feeling.  It, too, is part of the American character — our ability to stand in other people’s shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand; a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.”

How might our national politics and policy be different if we adopted that credo?  We are all in this together…..when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand…..a belief that in our country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play….

Sign me up.  How about you?