Our society had trouble with in recent years. That makes us wonder how strong our institutions will prove to be, how we will rise to a challenge like this. You cant help but see it as a time of crisis but because it is the time of testing it is also time to think about what americas strengths are, what we are good at and how we can build on that to address the enormous problems we confront. Host how did we get here . Guest that is an awfully complicated question. Our country has always tried to strike a balance between the dignity and the quality of the individual on the one hand and some form of strength of community on the other. Every free Society Faces that. Our society has in the past century emphasized the individual, emphasize liberty, emphasize freedom and diversity and that has brought some enormous advantages and benefits but there is another side to that coin and the other side look Like Division and fragmentation and isolation, it can look like alienation and loneliness and