China recently launched a Shenzhou 11 spacecraft marking “another great leap forward for the nation’s space program… China is NASA’s biggest rival in space exploration… In 2007, the nation tested an anti-satellite missile by blowing up a Chinese craft… U.S.-based analysts are concerned that China is hitting the accelerator as NASA hits the brakes” (Bloomberg, November 28, 2016).

Having endured several long (and ongoing) political battles here in the United States in the wake of acrimonious and divisive national elections, with political opponents still attacking each other in speeches and ad campaigns, we could all do with a more gracious kind of talk.