George H.W. Bush: “Today, an unprecedented era of peace, freedom, and stability makes concerted action on the environment possible as never…”

There seems to be a lot of name calling going on. But I want to remind you what our good dad told me one time. Labels are for soup cans.

More than 220 years later, Washington's warning feels strikingly relevant.

This means that people of every race, religion, ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.

American officials must heed the lessons of the short-lived coup in 2002, when Bush Administration support for Chavez's ouster undermined America's standing in the region and damaged our credibility as a defender of democracy.