Page 3 – The Waltonian

In October, current senior Emily Cole will be on a plane headed to Ecuador as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The Fulbright program is highly competitive and involves a rigorous application process. Cole tells me that she started her application this past summer and wrote and rewrote it until finally submitting it in October, at which point she waited until March to hear the results.

“After submitting the application, I just kept praying that if it’s what God wants me to do, He’ll give me the favor for it,” she tells me. “To get the email last week that I was one of the four selected,” she pauses and breaks into a beaming smile, “I was really excited.” Recipients of the award are fully funded to work abroad: Cole will be traveling to Ecuador where she will serve as an English Teaching Assistant and will also be actively building relationships within the community through leading soccer clinics where she can help mentor younger girls. Cole’s acceptance to this program is especially noteworthy because she is the first Eastern student to ever receive this award!

When I ask her why she chose Ecuador, Cole tells me it was her love of Spanish and her heart for Honduras and Latin America in general that led her to this decision. Indeed, Cole has a history with Latin America: in 2011, she went with her church on a missions trip to Honduras. She says that trip stirred her heart and changed her by allowing her to see people who are so joyful and thankful for what they do have even though in our eyes it seems like they have nothing. A year after this trip, Cole and her older sister, Andrea, created Honduran Soles, a nonprofit that provides shoes to those who need them. In January of 2013, six months after they created the organization, they traveled back to Honduras with nearly 2,000 pairs of shoes.

In talking with Cole, one is struck by two observations about her: the first is that she is beautifully confident, and the second is that she is deeply humble. As it turns out, these two features are often interconnected. She tells me that learning a new language is so humbling: “It’s a process where you’re going to say things that don’t make sense to others and hear things that don’t make sense to you. And you have to learn to make new sounds with your mouth and with your tongue, and that whole entire process is humbling.” But she also tells me that being here at Eastern has definitely helped her and that her professors, particularly Dr. Stewart and Dr. Mrs. Ramirez, have “instilled a lot of that confidence in me just by affirming how I’m doing and helping me through learning the [Spanish] language.” It is a mix of daily practice in the language, the guidance of professors including Dr. Francois (her Fulbright adviser) and the abiding power of faith that Cole credits as giving her the confidence to apply to the Fulbright with confidence that she knew Spanish well enough to live abroad and work with the people.

“I’m so grateful that I can say that Eastern helped me achieve this,” Cole says, adding that she hopes this will bring a lot of good to Eastern. In fact, what Cole really hopes for is that “more Eastern students will see that they can apply to and go for it. Because I think that sometimes being at a small Christian school, you think you can’t really compete with students from bigger schools, but Eastern has given us the tools.”

Of course, it wasn’t just Eastern that empowered Cole. She also talks to me at length about the role of faith and family: “I grew up in the faith, and I grew up learning about who Christ was from my incredible parents who have just poured the Word into our house and into my life and the lives of my four siblings. My parents showed us the authenticity that comes through faith.” Cole also talks about the transforming power of reading God’s Word: “Through reading the Word, I understood that Jesus wasn’t this high ruler who came and said, ‘Serve me.’ Instead he came and said, ‘I’m going to serve you.’ And so that humility and that servanthood captivated my heart years ago, and it continues to. And so for that reason I just pray all the time that God would shape my heart like His, that He would shape it to want to serve, to have that passion to serve like He did and to be able to invest in people because that’s what Christ did.” Of course, that doesn’t mean faith is always easy: “No, it’s not,” she assures me. “There’s hard stuff, and sometimes you don’t want to go out of your way to do something. But that’s the rewarding thing, seeing how much our faith changes us for the better.”

When I ask Cole if she has any long-term plans, she says, “I have a million things I wanna do,” which may include going to law school or working for a non-governmental organization (NGO). But for now, Cole says, “I’m going to pour myself into the Fulbright, and then when I get back, I can decide. I’m just trusting that God will direct me where He wants me to go, just like He’s done so far.”

One of the most memorable scenes in “Moonlight” features a black man teaching a black boy how to swim. I think the power of the imagery is that it is at once tender and fierce: tender as an expression of trust, love and nurture; fierce because this is a rite of passage, and the journey toward manhood is fraught with many dangers and calls for fortitude. I think it is also a lovely series of images, both in the technical details related to the composition and lighting, but also lovely because it affirms the goodness of being, and bodies, and being a black body in a broken world. By this, I do not mean to suggest, as does Ta-Nehisi Coates in his book, “Between the World and Me,” that we are only our bodies, the sum total of our cells and nothing more. And I think that “Moonlight” is much more soulful in its depiction of reality than Coates is in his commentary on that reality. But we can tend to forget that bodies are important, and in an age when Oscar films rarely feature black bodies or do so in the context of films in which the focal point is violence against black bodies (“Twelve Years a Slave,” “Fruitvale Station,” etc.), it is a solace to see a film wherein black bodies give and receive love.

Of course, this scene is far from sentimental. After all, the father figure is not the actual father and, moreover, is the dealer feeding the mother’s addiction. We see throughout the course of the film just how damaging this drug addiction is on the family unit. Truly, the film is a living sociological study in this regard, revealing the moral complexities of actual persons, without rendering judgment on their actions or seeking to explain and justify those actions. We know the greater context surrounding the swimming scene, and that greater context is important because we are asked by the filmmakers to recognize that the situation is messy and there are very real consequences to bad actions, and yet there is always room for grace. I’ve discussed these things in purposely abstracted language: the film is not concerned with telling the story of “father figures” and “actual persons”: it is telling the story of Juan and Chiron, and it requires you actually seeing them in their full character, beyond what I can describe here, to fully attend to their stories.

I was thinking about “Moonlight” during Eastern University’s “Stand in Solidarity” week in support of our LGBT+ community. One of the reasons I love the movie so much is because it is not ideological, but it does serve a crucial social function. When it comes to shared storytelling in common culture, there are majority narratives, stories that reflect the world as the majority demographic experiences it, and then there are counter-narratives which feature the richly diverse stories of people whose life experiences are vastly different. “Moonlight” is certainly not a majority narrative: being black in America is often by default a counter-narrative, and being black and gay in America is almost always a counter-narrative. But “Moonlight” is not a partisan film pushing a specific political message. Instead, it simply presents the experiences of Chiron as he grows up black and gay and socioeconomically disadvantaged and only asks that we as an audience give these characters our attention.

Eastern’s Stand in Solidarity did have political aims related to specific policy changes being lobbied for, but what I found to be most valuable about the week’s events was the space it created for the sharing of counter-narratives. For example, what does it feel like to be a gay Christian called to ministry who is actively discouraged from pursuing that vocation? I’ve never experienced this, and I would never have even imagined this experience: I didn’t know I needed this story to be told, but I did need it, and I’m glad that this story was given to our community.

The University of Connecticut’s Women’s Basketball team hasn’t lost a game since November…2014. Their win streak, which reached 107 games on March 7, is unprecedented, upending the NCAA record that the school had earlier set of 90 wins, which surpassed the UCLA Men’s record established from 1971 to 1974. And were it not for their loss against Stanford in overtime, the Huskies’ current record would be an unbelievable 148 games. The Huskies have also won four straight championships and will likely win their fifth-consecutive championship this year. Sports commentator Christine Brennan, in an interview with NPR, highlights the incredible accomplishments of the school and its coach, Geno Auriemma. She says that we are witnessing “the greatest system in the history of Women’s Basketball, and one of the great systems in the history of sports, Men’s or Women’s, period.”

Huskies coach Geno Auriemma is one of the major forces behind UConn’s great success, and this seems to be as much because of his character as his knowledge of the game. The New York Times reports that “only once had Auriemma’s program come this close to 100—a home-court winning streak that stood at 99 when an upstart St. John’s team won at Gampel in February 2012, before Connecticut’s departure from what was then a highly-competitive Big East Conference.” That loss for the Huskies was staggering in part because of how close the game was: in the final seconds of the game, St. John’s was trailing by two points, and then Shenneika Smith sank the game-winning shot. But something really special occurred that night: on the bus ride home, the coach of St. John’s team, Kim Barnes Arico, answered her cell phone to hear Geno Auriemma calling to congratulate her. Another peek at Auriemma’s character comes from a statement he gave back in 2010, in reflecting on his mentor John Wooden and his team: “The one thing we have in common is we settle for nothing less than the absolute best we can give you every single night, every single day….They [Wooden’s record-setting team] did it, and we’re doing it. Everything else to me is meaningless.

The most notable game so far in this winning streak occurred on Feb. 13: UConn matched up against the formidable South Carolina and secured their 100th win with a final score of 66-55. Columnist Scott Polacek, writing for the Bleacher Report, notes that South Carolina was only down by six points at the half. He highlights the role that UConn players Gabby Williams and Napheesa Collier played in cementing the lead and securing the victory, writing: “Gabby Williams proved too much. She poured in 26 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, dished out four assists and tallied four steals in a stat-sheet stuffing effort. Napheesa Collier added 18 points and nine boards in the win.” Polacek ends his column speculating about the future: “With no formidable opponent left on the conference schedule, and victories over many of the top-ranked teams already recorded, an inquiring mind wants to wonder whether the Huskies might in a couple of years be on the doorstep of 200.”

Regardless of what happens next, the significance of the University of Connecticut’s achievements cannot be unstated. Within the world of college sports, this kind of sustained performance is beyond comparison. For athletes everywhere, and especially female athletes, this record-shattering team is an inspiration.

Sources: Bleacher Report, Forbes, The New York Times, NPR

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It is all too common to use words without giving careful thought to the inherent meaning of these words. Such careless speech strips words of their potency, degrades language and destroys our capacity for rigorous thought, as argued via metaphor in the Homeric poetry of Wittgenstein. Given this understanding of the importance of language, I, being a prescriptivist linguist, felt compelled to make inquiry regarding this supposed “word” in order to delineate its various uses such that I could prescribe conventions to govern its correct usage, of which there is none.

The English Oxford Living Dictionary defines “lolz” in the following way: “plural noun; informal; fun, laughter or amusement.” The dictionary furnishes us with a helpful example of this word in its everyday usage: “‘OMG,’ she scolded, ‘this is no time for lolz.’” Recognizing that just because a dictionary has the word “Oxford” in its title need not mean it is an authoritative guide, I decided to also consult a guide created by and for the average plebeian, namely Urban Dictionary. This dictionary invites contributions in a democratic way, a mode of understanding perhaps more fitted to ‘Murica. Here I found the following definition: “basicly, laughing out loud. the Z is there to indicate lots of laughing (like when somethings is kinda funny and you kinda laugh a bit wait a sec and laugh some more wait a sec and laugh a bit more…).” But even within this dictionary, I noted socioeconomic bias conditioning the understanding of this word: for example, one user defines “lolz” as being both “1) A more literate way of saying lol” and “2) A way for literates in chatrooms to make fun of illiterates.” This user provides this example: “illiterate: lol im kooler than u!! literate: lolz!” Of course, normative patterns of speech do not legitimize the bastardization of language, which means this whole paragraph is irrelevant.

Regarding the usage of this word, “studies show and statistics reveal”* that all educated persons ought to think twice or even thrice before incorporating this word into their vernacular. According to a Wikipedia article I found,** scholars are not laughing out loud at the lolzy antics of slang-speaking youth. Two such scholars, Laccetti and Molski, have written that “unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be ‘lol’ when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar [and] has numerous misspellings, various made-up words and silly acronyms.” In support of this assessment, a quick perusal of the database of scholarly articles known as KSTOR furnished a bevy of critiques of “lolz” in such articles as “Lolzing Ourselves To Death” by Natalie Postman and “Is The Z in Lolz Making Us Stupid?” by Nicolai Karr.*** I even found an article by medievalist Dr. William Storm entitled “Why Chaucer Would Never Have Used Lolz.”****

*I straight up lifted this phrase directly from Dr. Butynskyi who uses it ironically in his lectures.

**This article cited a source for the quote: I deemed it too much work to reproduce that here. It’s not like I’m getting graded on this.

***No such database exists, and I invented these articles. JSTOR is an academic database with a lot of great scholarly articles, and we students have access to it paid for via Eastern University.

****To my knowledge, Dr. Storm has written no such paper, though I would certainly read it if he ever did.

Sources: English Oxford Dictionary, Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia

*****Please note: all Eastern Radish articles are satirical.

On Jan. 31 Dr. Duffett released a statement on President Trump’s executive order regarding immigration, informally known as the “travel ban,” which prevents residents from seven Middle Eastern countries from entering the United States. In his statement, Dr. Duffett writes of the nation’s First Amendment separation of church and state and prohibition against the state establishing a religion or preventing the free exercise of religion.

“I am deeply concerned,” says Duffett, “that the recent executive order on immigration traduces this line.” Duffett outlines steps that Eastern University is taking to address the situation as it affects the Eastern student body. Such steps include having the Student Development office actively assess the impact of the recent immigration executive order on our students, as well as advocating on Capitol Hill for better policies. Additionally, Duffett shares that “Eastern University signed, along with more than 600 colleges and universities, the Pomona Statement in support of protecting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students, and we recruited other institutions to do the same.” DACA is provisional status available to undocumented residents who were under age 16 when they entered the U.S. with their parents. DACA removes threat of deportation, grants work authorization and allows immigrants to apply for “advanced parole” status to travel outside of the U.S. and then return. DACA is not based in legislation, but rather, it is a part of an executive order from President Obama, which means that President Trump could overturn it at any time. Currently, there is drafted and proposed legislation entitled the Bridge Act which would essentially protect the status currently afforded by DACA, but for the moment, there is unease about the future of this status.

On Feb. 14, Eastern University hosted a policy presentation by Philadelphia immigration lawyer Mary Clark from Esperanza Immigration Legal Services. Clark brought attention to the second of President Trump’s immigration executive orders, the “interior enforcement” order that can directly affect Eastern University. Clark outlined several relevant features for universities surrounding these immigration orders. First, under the FERPA Act, all student information is protected, and law enforcement cannot access this information without a judicial order unless the student has a student visa or the student is suspected of terrorism. Second, currently in place is the Sensitive Locations Memo, which President Obama implemented via the Department of Homeland Security; this memo affords certain places like schools and universities, hospitals and religious institutions protection from immigration law enforcement raids. As with DACA, however, since this was not implemented legislatively, it could be revoked by the Trump administration at any time. In the event that it is revoked, universities like Eastern would still be afforded some level of protection via basic constitutional rights regarding private spaces, including dorm rooms, which law enforcement cannot enter without a warrant. Nevertheless, there is a lot of grey area related to what constitutes private or public. For example, given that Eastern’s campus is open to the public, the library could arguably be considered either a private or public space. Additionally, depending on how “harboring” gets defined as a criminal, universities which knowingly do not report undocumented students to law enforcement could lose federal funding or even face legal prosecution.

Eastern University is closely monitoring these current events and actively seeking the good of its student body. In his concluding remarks, Duffett says: “In these turbulent times I encourage you to engage in prayer for our country and also for those around the world who are impacted by decisions made by our political leaders. I also encourage you to engage with your elected officials, as we continue to do.”

If you have questions regarding the ban, please contact Augusta Allen, Director of International Student and Scholar Services, at aallen6@eastern.edu or Bettie Ann Brigham, Vice Provost for Student Development, at bbrigham@eastern.edu.

Sources: Mary Clark, eastern.edu

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The loss of Justice Scalia was a devastating blow to the nation last year. He brought a conservative disposition, prudent intelligence and incisive wit to bear on complex cases argued before the United States Supreme Court. President Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, seems like a great fit to replace Justice Scalia.

Gorsuch’s level of education is stellar. He went to a Jesuit-run high school before attending Columbia for his B.A., Harvard Law for his J.D. and Oxford University for his D.Phil., where he studied under the mentorship of natural law theorist John Finnis. Equally commendable is Gorsuch’s legal philosophy which is very similar to Scalia’s. Gorsuch is an originalist, meaning that he believes we ought to interpret the Constitution as close to the original intent of the authors as possible. In his words, “ours is the job of interpreting the Constitution, and that document isn’t some inkblot on which litigants may project their hopes and dreams.” In addition, Gorsuch is highly critical of the relatively recent trend to defer to the Courts to solve social policy debates rather than letting the legislative branches work things out on the state and federal levels. In an article for National Review in 2005, he writes to condemn the “overweening addiction to the courtroom as the place to debate social policy,” noting that such an approach is “bad for the country and bad for the judiciary.” He also notes that “the politicization of the judiciary undermines the only real asset it has—its independence.” At a time when principled conservatives are suspicious of President Trump’s pragmatism, Gorsuch’s commitment to the independence of the judiciary is a breath of fresh air, reminding us all of the beauty of the checks and balances built into our system.

It isn’t just conservatives like myself who are pleased with the nomination of Gorsuch. Writing for the New York Times, Neil Katyal, an acting solicitor general for President Obama, urged liberals like himself to support the nomination. He even writes the following regarding Gorsuch: “I have seen him up close and in action, both in court and on the Federal Appellate Rules Committee (where both of us serve); he brings a sense of fairness and decency to the job and a temperament that suits the nation’s highest court.” Katyal notes that he disagrees politically with Gorsuch on a good many issues, and yet he recognizes Gorsuch to be a man of character, possessing the necessary qualities to serve his nation well on the Supreme Court.

Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, gives an excellent summary of who the Court would be gaining if the nomination goes through. Gorsuch, he writes, is “a faithful husband, a good father, a caring neighbor and a generous friend.” While Gorsuch’s academic credentials and conservative philosophy inspire much confidence, it is ultimately this commendation stating that he is indeed a genuinely good man that gives me the greatest reason to celebrate his nomination.

Sources: National Review, New York Times, Washington Post

While most of us were at home watching Netflix during winter break, student athletes on the EU Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams were hard at work winning games. Here is what you need to know about how our Eastern Eagles are doing and what to look for this season.

The Women’s Basketball team stands with a record of 11 wins and five losses. Emily Lavin, who has been recognized again as the MAC Freedom Player of the Week twice thus far this season, leads the team in scoring with 275 points, as well as blocks (58), while Amanda Riiff leads the Eagles in three-pointers (33). Regie Robinson leads the Eagles in the rebound column (167), and Taylor Price has the most assists (61).

One of the best games of the season so far was the Jan. 14 matchup against Wilkes University. The game was close throughout its duration, with Eastern having only a six-point lead at the end of the half. After a solid second half, Eastern won the game with a final score of 66-56. Another significant win was Eastern’s 53-46 win over King’s College, a critical victory in MAC Freedom play.

The Men’s Basketball team currently has an overall record of nine wins and seven losses. Shaquan Turk leads the team in scoring with 311 points, as well as free throws (89), blocks (21) and steals (22). Austin Carroll has the most assists (62), while Austin James and Austin Duncan lead in three-pointers with 28 each. Victor Peña has the most total rebounds (113).

As with the Women’s team, the EU Men’s Basketball Jan. 14 matchup against Wilkes University was also a noteworthy game. Having kept the lead for the entirety of the game, Eastern clenched the victory with a final score of 83-70. A much closer nail-biter was played on Jan. 11 against Misericordia: after trailing in the last quarter, Eastern tied the game at 97-97 with a buzzer-beating shot from Austin Carroll and then won the game in overtime with a final score of 112-107.

Sophomore Brennan Kastens, a forward, gave the following statement to The Waltonian: “The 2016-17 team has benefitted from having five seniors on the team and a bunch of returning players, something we haven’t had in a few years. We played a tough non-conference schedule and used both wins and losses as an opportunity to learn and improve. We have started conference play 3-1 and look to continue this success as the conference season continues.”

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On a cold and rainy evening midway through last semester, I texted a close friend: “I need a hug and maybe a cup of tea.” It had been a particularly rough day for me, compounding the pain of a rough week. The particulars of my pain that night can remain between my friend and myself. The significance of the story is that I needed that hug, and I needed that tea, and I especially needed time in the loving presence of my friend.

I know it has become something of a running joke to mock the supposed emotional fragility of college students, “safe spaces” and all that. But college can be hard. Schedules can be exacting, readings can be heavy in subject matter and it’s not as if the interpersonal dramas and all-too-human conflicts simply dissipate because one is at school. Indeed, the more college is attuned to real life (that is, the more our studies lead to personal growth), the more likely we will experience moments of deep suffering. Scripture is quite clear about the link between suffering and growth in character. Winter is particularly hard for a lot of us, with the cold and the depletion of sunlight. That means that the almost ironically-named spring semester can be more challenging than the fall for a lot of students. On top of the seasonal changes, we’re coming back to school after a mere three weeks away, unlike in the fall when we’ve had months to rest. I mention all of this because while I think the controversies around microaggressions and the like are often absurd, I also think that doesn’t negate the fact that there is often real pain in real lives on campus. So I’d like to ask us, as a community, to do two things.

The first is to keep our eyes, ears and hearts open in love to those around us, and especially our friends. Please notice those who are lonely, those who are in need of an affirming word of encouragement, those who are having a rough day and just need a friendly smile. Sometimes the only thing that’s needed to speak healing into a hurting soul is a hug and a cup of tea; sometimes healing requires more time. But being a community means that we have moral obligations to care for each other. To my shame, I can think of occasions in past semesters when I shirked this duty because I privileged my own time above the needs of my friends. God, forgive me. But I’m encouraged that communities like ours are covered in grace; we won’t love perfectly, but we will love, and we so desperately need to love and be loved.

The second thing that I ask of us as a community is perhaps the harder of the two tasks. I ask that we would ask for the care that we need. It’s not just pride that often prevents us from telling our friends when we are hurting. We can often experience guilt: Who are we to intrude? We know our friends probably have burdens of their own, and we do not wish to add weight upon their shoulders. But the beauty of community is that shared burdens are lesser burdens, and the beauty is that when we let others speak healing into our lives, we release blessings that invigorate the lives of our friends. If you are hurting, please reach out to your friends. God has placed us together for such a time as this.

My reflection here is not profound or even all that original, and making a cup of tea for a friend seems like a far cry from waking up the world. Yet it is easy to lose sight of these basic elements of community when assignments start piling up and schedules get filled. It is my prayer that the Eastern University community would be a place where love and grace flows freely. College is hard, but we will get through; we can only get through it, together.

The year after I graduated high school, I asked to volunteer as assistant coach for the home-school league in which I had played for the last four years. At that point in my life, I had played soccer every season from the time I was four years old and often played additionally in various church leagues, indoor leagues, etc. The thought of going a season without being out on the field was devastating to me. I told myself that at least as assistant coach, I could still run drills with the guys and often even participate in scrimmages at the end of practices. Looking back though, there was another reason I didn’t want to part ways with the team, and that is because my coach, Coach Andy, had changed my life, and there was something in me that wanted to learn how to mentor and lead like he did.

I learned a lot from shadowing Coach Andy that season. I learned that leading practices that address particular weaknesses requires more creative thinking than it would seem. I learned that it is one thing to say you care more about sportsmanship and teamwork from your players than you do about winning the game, but it is another thing entirely to actually mean those words, and the team can definitely tell the difference. I learned that it is hard to watch your team get decimated by a better team and see them give up on the field. I learned that it is even harder to rally them at halftime. I learned that real life is different than sports movies which are known for dramatic speeches that send the spirits soaring into the clouds and turn the game around. In real life, I’d say something like, “Just keep working together, you guys can do it, I believe in you,” which was OK advice. But Coach Andy would say something like, “I don’t care that you’re losing; I want to see you implementing those triangle passes you’ve been practicing,” and that advice was often enough to turn the tide, but even when it didn’t, the team was able to accept defeat with dignity.

One season of assistant coaching didn’t transform me into a world-renowned coach, obviously. But it did give me a greater appreciation for the good work that coaches do.

In reflection, I think there is something unique about Christian coaches. Christian coaches are also able to nurture the souls of the athletes under their leadership, often in profound ways, leading them in developing virtue on and off the field. A good coach wins the respect of the players, which provides that coach with opportunities to speak into their lives. A good coach also demonstrates Christ-like attributes like patience, love and slowness to anger, which serves as an admirable example the team can emulate. Even something as simple as knowing that your coach is praying for you can be just the encouragement needed to surmount challenges or deal with personal suffering.

Behind every good team is good coaches; that is one cliché from the movies that holds true. I think I took my coaches, whether in soccer or basketball, for granted for most of my growing-up years. But coaches matter, and good coaches can change our lives. We should thank our coaches more than we do; they sacrifice so much of their time for us and dedicate so much of their energy to us. We may never know the full extent to which our coaches have shaped our character, but it is never too soon to be grateful for the good work that coaches do or have done.

As your second term as our president draws to a close, I want to thank you, President Obama, for these eight years that you have served our nation. We did not agree on everything, and some of our disagreements, regarding abortion, for example, are profound. Yet my respect and admiration for you has only increased with time.

Thank you for being a good husband and a good father. On your first date with Michelle, you attended a community organizer meeting, and from that day till now, you’ve always been a team. Together, you’ve invested in America from your days practicing law to acting as first family. And in every picture, it is clear to America and to the world that you love your wife with all your heart. Thank you, President Obama. Your precious daughters grew up in the White House and have matured into wonderful young women, poised to do great things. You were present with them throughout these years, prioritizing dinnertime, for example, and this in spite of the pressures and responsibilities of your office. Thank you, President Obama.

Thank you for reminding us again and again that the “moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.” You spoke at Howard University and told those African-American students that you know there are a host of issues facing black people in this country, from police brutality to housing discrimination. But you also reminded those students that we have made so much progress as a nation and that it has never been as good a time to be a black man or woman in this nation than it is today. Thank you, President Obama.

Thank you for your unofficial foreign policy slogan “don’t do stupid s—.” I know there are controversies regarding some of your decisions like the Iran Deal and the red line with Syria, and I myself question your use of drone warfare on ethical grounds. But I know also that the foreign policy challenges facing this nation and this world are incredibly complex, and I think you did certain things well. You opened up Cuba, lifting the decades-old embargo, after meeting secretly with Pope Francis and Castro—that’s pretty cool, and also, yay for Cuban cigars. You and Secretary Clinton made significant progress on addressing climate change when you crashed that meeting in Copenhagen and didn’t leave the rooms until negotiations were over and agreements were reached. You asked our nation to begin thinking about the development of Asia and not just focus on the Middle East. Thank you, President Obama.

Thank you for the intentions behind Obamacare. We can quibble about implementation, we can argue about whether keeping privatized health care is best, but the simple truth is that lots and lots of people who otherwise lacked insurance were able to receive medical treatment, go through with surgeries and buy needed medications because of your efforts.

Thank you for being graceful thus far in working with president-elect Donald Trump as he begins to transition into leadership. You, our first black president, are working with a man endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, and yet you have been kind to him such that he has expressed eagerness to seek your counsel in the years to come. Thank you, President Obama.

Thank you for your sense of humor which you have retained despite the strains of your eight-year presidency. You made me laugh when you appeared on “The Colbert Report” and “Jimmy Fallon.” You obviously enjoyed being the butt of the Press dinner roast. You even had enough humor to release that hilarious White House video with Republican John Boehner, with whom you often clashed. Thank you, President Obama.

Dear President Obama, I distinctly remember the day I watched you interact with those kids at the White House Science Fair (a tradition you started and which I hope your successors continue). You were having a blast and likely changing their lives forever, and I thought to myself, if I grow up to be a man like this, who is kind, gracious, loving, energetic and eager to invest in the next generation, then I will have become everything I hope to be. You inspired us by leading with integrity and grace, and we thank you, President Obama.