We are caught an endless tragic loop of two stories that seem to repeat in the news every week: police brutality against black Americans and mass shootings at places of work, worship, education, shopping, and entertainment.

Lately, it has been interesting watching the news media, Republicans, Democrats, and anyone who has an opinion discussing and debating the word infrastructure. It comes on the heels of President Biden’s rollout of his $2 Trillion new infrastructure proposal, the “American Jobs Plan”.

It has been a difficult week for our nation as we have watched the wrenching testimony of the witnesses in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. We experienced the dramatic opening nine minutes of silence. We heard a 19-year-old describe the guilt he feels for having taken the counterfeit $20 bill that set off the chain of events from that day.

There have been 29 mass shootings in the last five years in the United States. Twice, in less than a week, our president has called to lower flags to half-staff in the wake of mass shootings. 18 people going about their normal lives were slaughtered in Georgia and Colorado.

This week we watched in horror as the reports came in about the murder of eight people in Atlanta, six of them Asian women. This killing spree comes on the heels of the report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino that Anti-Asian hate crimes in the US are up 150% during the pandemic.

Joe Biden has shown extraordinary leadership in his first 50 days in office. In his speech marking the one-year anniversary of the COVID lockdown, he captured the moment by exhibiting honesty, optimism with caution, and most of all empathy. For the past four years, we were starved of compassion, truthfulness, and leaders who have our backs.

Despite GOP opposition, the House passed a sweeping voter rights bill this week. If House Resolution 1, the For the People Act, were to be passed in the Senate, it would be the largest voting rights and ethics overhaul in a generation. It has been described as “the most sweeping pro-democracy bill in decades”.

It has been another busy week of President Biden doing the job of being president. In contrast to the previous administration, he has signaled to other world leaders that America will not tolerate foreign intrusions into our affairs and that we value human rights. Good for him.

We literally landed on Mars this week. If you have not taken the time to watch the eleven-minute video of the landing of Perseverance on Mars, please try to find the time to do it. We are a country that marvels at and celebrates the greatness of science and ingenuity and it does not get any bigger than precisely and safely landing a rover on Mars.

It has been a roller coaster of a week emotionally and we have felt deeply the overall exhaustion of the last month and from the last four years. A beaten down feeling has many of us ready to close the book on the seemingly endless chapter of Donald Trump. It weighed even more heavily as we realized the depressing knowledge that acquittal was inevitable even though, as Congressman Raskin said, if Trump’s conduct is not a high crime and misdemeanor, what is.