A letter from Mar 19, 2025

In his Farewell Address on January 4, 1981, President Jimmy Carter noted that the undermining of faith in the government's ability deal with problems meant that Americans were turning increasingly to "single-issue groups and special interest organizations to ensure that whatever else happens, our own personal views and our own private interests are protected." This, he warned, distorts the nation's purpose because "the national interest is not always the sum of all our single or special interests. We are all Americans together, and we must not forget that the common good is our common interest and our individual responsibility."