BY RUSH HOLT
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM N.J.'s 12TH DISTRICT
COMMENTARY
I try to make the ceremony of my oath of office inspiring for my constituents who come to Washington that day and for myself. On January 4, I was joined by several eloquent speakers, including Anthony Appiah, a philosopher at Princeton University, who shared his thoughts on bridging party lines in these divisive times:
“Ben Franklin, one of the wisest of our founding spirits, told in his autobiography about how we can deal rationally but also humanely with the problems of political division.
“Franklin tells how he got the help of a legislator who disagreed with him on policy, not by being nice to him - that was too obvious - but by asking him to lend him a book. From then on they were friends.
