Like a lot of people, the year 2020 stirred up a whole lot of emotions in me.

For three years, I'd had to watch a presidential successor who was diametrically opposed to

everything I believed in and witnessed a country that seemed to be getting angrier and more divided

with each passing day. Then came a historic pandemic, along with a slip-shot government response

that reigned hardship and loss on millions and forced all of us to consider what's really important

in life. And in the middle of all this, there were the nationwide protests triggered by the murder

of George Floyd. Yet another tragic reminder of just how powerfully racism continues to stain

so many aspects of American life. And all that was before the world witnessed a violent mob

spurred on by lies and wild conspiracy theories storm the US Capitol where I'd once served.

How did we get here? How could we find our way back to a more unifying American story?

That topic came to dominate so many of my conversations last year, with Michelle,

with my daughters, and with friends. And one of those friends just happened to be Mr. Bruce

Springsteen. On the surface, Bruce and I don't have a lot in common. He's a white guy from a small

town in Jersey. I'm a black guy of mixed race, born in Hawaii, with a childhood that took me around

the world. He's a rock and roll icon. I'm a lawyer in politician, not as cool. And as I like to

remind Bruce every chance I get, he's more than a decade older than me, although he looks damn good.

But over the years, what we found is that we've got a shared sensibility about work,

about family, and about America. In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys,

trying to understand this country that's given us both so much, trying to chronicle the stories

of its people, looking for a way to connect our own individual searches for meaning and truth

than community, with the larger story of America. And what we discovered during these conversations

was that we still share a fundamental belief in the American ideal. Not as an airbrushed cheap

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