All right, let’s all exhale.

We need time to recover from this information, this sensory overload. Gather our thoughts. Pray.

I pray for you if the news that the president and his wife have tested positive for the corona virus bring you pleasure. I pray for the president and his family and all those whose daily physical proximity to him places them at risk.

I pray for the reporters and technicians working in the news media whose responsibilities place them, and their families, in danger.

This I know: The president and those close to him will receive the best medical care available. A responsible news media will continue to provide us with honest, accurate information.

This republic will survive.

Until we learned that the president and his wife tested positive, I had intended to express my thoughts, finally, about last Tuesday‘s debate in this blog post. By now, you have heard and read the responses of others. You don’t need to add mine to that chorus, but here is one point I’d like to make.

For nearly four years, responsible professionals in what we identify as the news media have reported to us what this man and his associates have done to the institutions of our government, to our relationships with foreign governments, to the vulnerable among us, and to all of us Americans. Some of us distrust the news media in general, but we need to realize that most of its representatives are ethical and honest, well worthy of our trust. We depend on them to tell us the truth.

On Tuesday night, we didn’t need the news media to tell us anything. We saw and heard for ourselves.

We know that we are in for a bumpy ride between now and January 20.

But we, the people, will survive, and so will the America we love. He can’t change that.