“The tragic character of American history is unavoidable, since rights cannot help but conflict with rights; yet the moral commitments that shape such a conflict produce a people incapable of recognizing, much less responding, to such conflicts. America is at once the name of an aspiration to liberty and equality of rights and the name of the power that stands in the way of that aspiration. As a result Americans find themselves at war not only with one another but with themselves.”

- Stanley Hauerwas