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Everybody is not completely traumatised by their life.

It's one of the great tragedies of our contemporary life in America, that families fall apart. Almost everybody has that in common.

American culture is torn between our long romance with violence and our terror of the devastation wrought by war and crime and environmental havoc.

I think in the wake of 9/11, like a lot of Americans, you know, we were all very traumatized by the attacks, traumatized in a totally different way by some of what happened afterward in response. And I think there have been these questions hovering in the past decade of, what kind of country are we? Who are we?

I think the heartbreak of September 11 - America's grief not only over the loss of life but also the loss of our own innocence - has expanded us as people because it has tenderized our hearts. On a psychological level, the American people have matured as a result of that awful day.

America has been a beacon of hope for vulnerable people throughout the world.

An American tragedy in which we all have played a part.

The most violent and troubling stories become part of our national consciousness about foster care.

The victim mentality may be the last uncomplicated thing about life in America.

Until the legacy of remembered and reenacted trauma is taken seriously, black America cannot heal.