"One of the most important steps is to meet with everyone, to talk about these concerns, to heal the divisions and take on the issues, to build a strong and transformative union".
She began with Joseph Conrad and moved on to biology ("chloroplasts, lysosomes, mitochondria + cell division!") and "Great Issues in Western Civilization".
"We must not break faith with our principles"; "the future lies in our beliefs and values"; "accept the need for change"; "broaden our base and appeal"; "time to close the book on divisions and talk about the issues that matter to people... offer the hope of genuine change...a modern, bold, dynamic party".
He also praised the work's attention to "important social issues: the division between rich and poor, and issues on a global scale.
There are serious philosophical, regional, and economic divisions on these issues -- and no area of policy, it seems, can fully escape the highly partisan nature of American politics.* But McCarthy's path does show us what is possible.
In an interview last week, he pointed out that as attorney general he presides over an office of 9,200 employees scattered over 10 divisions and deals with the legal issues ranging from insurance fraud to highway safety.
You have to ask where a lot of these posts about our so-called divisions on issues like race and gender come from.
He focused instead, as many in the church did, on the departing archbishop's indefatigable efforts to heal the church's bitter divisions on issues of gender and sexuality.
At the top of those challenges are the divisions over issues involving sexuality and gender that threatened at times to lead to a formal schism between liberal and conservative wings of the church during the 10-year tenure of his predecessor, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, who retired to become master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University.
Apart from the obvious divisions on issues like immigration reform and foreign policy, they still have yet to articulate a message on where the country should go from here.
