Josh Shapiro

while we slept, I've really had to, and thank God we're okay.

Thank God for the first responders and police officers who kept us safe.

But I've had to struggle in the months since with this idea that doing this thing I love, this service that I love to do, that I feel called to do, that that put my children's lives at risk.

And that's a hard thing to...

you know, sort of grapple with, particularly when you struggle your whole life to find that balance.

Look, I don't know that I'm sharing anything that any other, you know, professional, any other adult, any other parent doesn't go with or grapple with.

I tried to be honest, you know, with the reader about how I work through it.

And I hope it offers people some comfort as they go through the same struggles in their lives and also, you know, some opportunity to reflect on their own lives.

I actually think that the present leadership excluded, the American people are good and decent and honorable people.

And we are an empathetic people.

We are a sympathetic people.

We are a people that look out for their neighbors.

I think, unfortunately, the leadership that we're seeing in this country right now does not reflect the goodness of the people that I've come to know throughout my years of service.

That's really what motivated me to write the book.

This juxtaposition between the news that you so ably cover every day about the chaos and the cruelty and the corruption coming out of DC, and quite frankly, I don't see that matching up

with the goodness I see here in Pennsylvania every day, the goodness I've been privileged to witness across America.

I wanted to write a book about those people who've inspired me, those people who do good every day, and those people who have real empathy.

They've taught me a lot.

They've taught me how to listen.

They've taught me a deeper sense of empathy, and I'm gonna carry those lessons with me as I go forward.