moved by a moment in the Senate

I don't really have anything sophisticated or intelligent to say about this moment
.

I do think it encapsulates perfectly the seam of tension running through American public life: it is both beautiful and maddening. The man offering the prayer reflects on his experience in this Washington Post discussion forum.

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I am occasionally moved by public spectacles of nationhood and political community (Arlington Cemetery comes to mind most often). Every so often I dimly glimpse something luminous and profound hiding underneath the garish rot of the American power machine. It has that same elusive quality of the communal bond of family...that feeling that makes you say: yes, while its true I cannot stand you most of the time, I can't really bear to live with out you, and for better or worse we are in this together.

I have this same feeling watching Rajan Zed trying, in the face Christian protesters, to offer a Sanskrit invocation in the Senate. His expression betrayed a moment of hurt and surprise while he tried to maintain his equanimity against the protesters' disrepect, and for a moment I felt deeply, fiercely, protectively, American, and grateful to the authority of that room in its defense of his right to be there and to say the words he said.