Every day, I struggle. I open my computer and against my better judgment I read the Washington Post and the New York Times. It is not the best way to start out the morning. I really need to develop a different habit.

Never in my life have I been more aware of the moral foundation from which people operate. Apparently, many of the people who elected our current administration hold the moral foundation that there is no greater moral good than to protect the integrity of their tribe or the teachings of their gods.

Unfortunately, it appears some of those at the highest levels government are operating without any moral foundation. Their moral code is in service to nothing but their own ego and its tyrannical desire for just two things – power and safety. (By the way, every ego’s tyrannical desire is for power and safety. It’s why we need to grow beyond our ego.)

Then there is another half of the nation, the half without much power, the half that still operates from the moral standard that gave birth to Western Civilization. It is the moral standard baked into the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I typed that quote from memory. I think part of the problem is that most Americans could not type that quote from memory. In fact, many have no idea those words are from the Declaration of Independence, or even what the Declaration of Independence is. I’m not sure, but I think it’s possible the only reason my grandkids know those words is because they have virtually memorized the entire libretto of Hamilton, which is a good thing. Public schools barely teach civics anymore.

My discouragement is turning into hopelessness. That is dangerous. I’ve spoken on NPR and in live venues from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco about solutions to the current crisis. I spoke to a group of 35 Colorado mayors, most of whom held my perspective on politics. Outside of my keynote, most of their time was devoted to the loss of federal funding for most their social service programs.

That event took place in February, when I still had fight in me. Since January I’ve been talking with folks from TED about potentially doing a TED Talk on the working title of my new book, When the Enemy is You – Responding with an Open Mind, a Receptive Spirit, and an Inquiring Soul.

The new book, speaking wherever I can, serving as Mayor Pro Tem – all are attempts to make a difference. But with each passing week I become less motivated. The overwhelming onslaught of self-centered, bigoted decisions with international consequences has overwhelmed me.

I fear I am headed into the place called, “Without Hope.” “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” is the inscription above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno. I am afraid it has become the inscription above the gates of the entryway into the United States.

I am weary. Give me a way to fight and I will fight. Give me an articulate leader to follow, one not beholden to the right or the far left, and I will follow. Give me someone who believes in the Declaration of Independence and the future of our nation and I will do my part.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus talked about a church so effective even the gates of hell could not withstand its onslaught. It is time for that church to rise up. If only I understood the part I am to play.