PARKER PALMER writes:: Last night, I read the political news of the day from a variety of sources, left, center, and right. I went to bed deeply distressedโagainโat the sad, sick mess American politics has become. As I read, I kept thinking back on the two days I spent last week meeting in my home with three of the best people I knowโtwo Americans and one South African who serve as peace-makers in South Sudan, where almost half a million people have died in a civil war over the last few years, and twice that number have become refugees. In my friends, I saw the finest fruits of a fully evolved humanityโa capacity to transcend greed and self-interest, even the need for personal safety, in order to help a suffering people move toward love, truth, and justice. But in my own country, all I can see at the moment is a hot, steaming, shameful pile of politics at its worst, driven by a depth of cupidity, corruption, and cowardice that almost defies description... So t...