The Good Guys had an Amazing Week.

It’s Friday.

The good guys had an amazing week.

How about we celebrate a little?

Congratulations to the Knicks and to the entire city of New York, which just reminded America what a melting pot is supposed to look like. Millions of people from different backgrounds, neighborhoods, faiths, incomes, and generations high-fiving strangers in the street, singing songs together, wearing the same colors, and sharing an unlikely triumph after nearly half a century of disappointment.

And then there was the mayor.

Virtually unknown to most Americans a year ago, he sat in the nosebleed seats during the game and then delivered a speech about a city coming together behind a basketball team. It wasn’t really about basketball. It was about belonging. It was about what happens when people stop staring at screens and start sharing experiences.

And then there were the children.

For some of them, this will become one of those memories that never leaves. The kind of memory my generation has of where we were when President Kennedy was shot. The kind of memory they will tell at dinner parties thirty and forty years from now.

“Do you remember 2026?”

“The year the Knicks finally won again.”

“The year New York City roared.”

In a time when so many young Americans are growing up surrounded by anxiety, division, and endless bad news, I am grateful that millions of children got to experience pure joy. A moment that belonged to all of them.

And then there was Chicago.

This week the Obama Presidential Center opened on the South Side, a stunning campus dedicated not simply to one presidency but to citizenship, community, and the idea that ordinary people can change the course of history. The center includes a museum, public spaces, a library, athletic facilities, and gathering places designed to inspire future generations.

Michelle Obama delivered a tribute to her husband, speaking about the privilege of walking beside him through a journey that no one can reasonably describe as anything less than remarkable. He cried. I cried. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

"You told me all those years ago that you couldn't promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life. And of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both, I know it hasn't always been easy, but there hasn't been a single second through this experience that standing by your side hasn't left me in awe. Eight years in The Crucible and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage. Your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency. Your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber."- Michelle Obama June, 2026

Former Presidents Bush, Clinton, Biden, and Obama stood together. For one afternoon, the headlines were not about what divides us. They were about what we have built together. (Axios⁠)

And the people came.

Thousands gathered on Chicago’s South Side. A community often discussed for its challenges was instead celebrated for its history, its culture, its resilience, and its future. (Reuters⁠)

It was a great week, fellow humans, in an interrupted America.

A great week for New York.

A great week for Chicago.

A great week for basketball fans.

A great week for people who still believe communities matter.

These are the stories we should be talking about. These are the moments worth celebrating. These are the reminders that America is still capable of joy, pride, achievement, and unity.

And perhaps if enough of us spend our time amplifying these stories instead of feeding outrage, we can begin to change the trajectory of the national conversation.

The negative narrative is not the only narrative.

This is the kind of thing we want to talk about.

This is the kind of thing we want to build.

This is the kind of thing that will carry us through dark moments and into better ones.

Have a great weekend.

I can’t wait to see what next week brings.

*******

From Obama’s Remarks….Read the entire speech here.

For millions of people in this country and around the world, the future feels uncertain, the ground unstable beneath our feet.

And as algorithms keep feeding us a steady stream of distraction and outrage, as only the loudest, most extreme voices get attention, fanning our prejudices, appealing to our basest, most tribal instincts.

It’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying.

We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old fashioned and boring and naive. That the very idea of working on behalf of the common good is a sucker’s bet and that in order for us to win, somebody else has got to lose.

I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt. But I do know this.

When we lose faith in each other. When we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters and we give away our power to decide our own futures, we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless or the most fearful among us. Who see some groups and some people as more equal than others. And see government is nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies, and keep those who are different in their place.

I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end. I don’t believe it because for us to give up, for us to give in now, after all this country’s been through, to cynicism and division would be a betrayal of our founding ideals.

A betrayal of our faith.

And I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans feel the same way. That as unsettled as we are, people aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect. That deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn towards each other again, not further away.

I believe this because I’ve seen it, all across our country. In cities that have worked together to reclaim their streets from crime, in rural communities that have rebuilt their economy and businesses that are finding new ways to make housing affordable.

And those ordinary people in the Twin Cities who braved frigid temperatures, risked their own safety standing shoulder to shoulder to look out for their neighbors and sometimes look out for strangers because they knew that was the right thing to do. I’ve seen it.

And I’ve seen it in a new generation of leaders here and around the world.